Extra police deployed around London after rise in violent crime

Some 300 extra officers are being deployed in badly hit parts of London amid a spike in deadly violence.

It comes after it emerged Metropolitan Police has opened 55 murder investigations in London this year and there were six non-fatal stabbings from Thursday night into Friday morning in the capital.

The rising wave of violent crime meant the number of suspected murders in March was higher than that of New York.

A 17-year-old youth has been charged with murder after 18-year-old Israel Ogunsola was stabbed to death in east London on Wednesday night.

The teenager appeared at Thames Magistrates' Court on Saturday charged with murder and possession of an offensive weapon and will appear at the Old Bailey on April 10.

A second 17-year-old arrested on suspicion of murder has been bailed to a date in mid-April.

Man charged over Tanesha Melbourne-Blake murder

On Friday a 30-year-old man was arrested in Hackney over the murder of Tanesha Melbourne-Blake, 17, who was gunned down in Tottenham on Monday.

The teenager was killed in a drive-by attack as she sat chatting with friends in a killing that shocked the capital.

On Friday afternoon a section 60 order, granting police stop and search powers across the Borough of Newham, was announced in response to an incident where a 13-year-old boy was stabbed in Gainsborough Avenue on Thursday.

Three teenage boys, one 13-year-old and two 16-year-olds, were charged with wounding with intent under joint enterprise laws and were due to at Thames Magistrates' Court on Saturday.

Officers 'need to make more use of stop-and-search'

Sara Thornton, one of Britain's most senior police chiefs, has warned stop-and-search powers are not being exercised enough in the fight against violent crime.

Ms Thornton, chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said that a backlash against the controversial powers had gone too far while rates of gun and knife crime have surged.

Making her case in an article for the Daily Telegraph, Ms Thornton wrote: "This power may have been used too freely in the past, but the pendulum has now swung too far in the opposite direction.

"Our officers must know that we back them to use their powers - lawfully and respectfully, but with confidence."

Ms Thornton said that the increase in violent crime was not limited to London, with figures showing knife crime has increased by 21% and gun crime by 20% year-on-year across the country.

Meanwhile the use of stop and search has fallen dramatically, with section 60 powers falling in use from 1,429 instances to 23 between 2011/12 and 2016/17 in London.

As a policing method, stop and search has been criticised for disproportionately targeting poorer areas and ethic minority groups.

Head of Thames Valley police between 2007 and 2015, Ms Thornton said that police were trained to exercise the powers with "dignity and respect", while advances such as body-worn cameras could increase public support for the method.

She wrote: "I am not advocating random stop and search, or abusing our powers in headlining-grabbing crackdowns. I am advocating policing that we know works, targeted patrols of hotspots, with our officers certain we are behind them to use their judgment and their powers in the public interest."