London gun murders tripled in 2001
Reuters UK
13 June 2001
Gun murders in London tripled in April and May this year compared with the same period in 2000, police said on Wednesday.
"In April and May of last year there were 33 murders, and for the same period of 2001 there were 42. Thirteen of this year's were firearms murders...for last year the figure was four," a spokesman for Scotland Yard told Reuters.
During the same period this year, there were 46 non-fatal shootings in the British capital, taking total shootings to 59 or an average of one a day. There was no comparative statistic for 2000.
The spokesman said most of the shootings were drug-related, and particularly so-called "Yardie" incidents as rival black gangs vie to control the lucrative trade in cocaine.
He said 38 of the 59 shooting incidents were Yardie-related.
"There are concerns about the number of firearms in circulation and we obviously are working very hard to counteract that," the spokesman said.
"They are coming in illegally from other countries," he said, adding that Eastern Europe and Jamaica were among the top sources of the illegal guns.
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