Detectives investigating the killing of Elianne Andam, who was stabbed to death in south London, have been granted more time to question a suspect.
Elianne, 15, was attacked after getting off a bus to help a friend while on her way to school in Croydon.
A boy, also 15 and known to Elianne, was arrested an hour later and investigators have been given until Friday morning to charge or release him.
The “beautiful” young GCSE student, who “dreamed of being a lawyer”, is the 15th teenager to have died in a homicide in London this year.
Thirteen of those killed were stabbed and two others were shot, with all but two of the killings carried out north of the River Thames across west, north and east London.
Elianne Andam, 15, who was fatally stabbed on Wednesday morning in Croydon, south London (Metropolitan Police/PA)— (PA Wire)
According to Office for National Statistics, the number of people killed with a knife in England and Wales in 2021/22 was the highest on record for 76 years.
At the time the report was published in February, the ONS said the increase was driven by an 18 per cent rise in the number of male victims, from 184 to 218, in the 12 months to March 2022.
The largest volume increase was for teenage boys aged 16 to 17.
Patrick Green, chief executive of anti-knife crime charity the Ben Kinsella Trust, set up in 2008 following the fatal stabbing of 16-year-old Ben in north London, suggested the effects of the Covid pandemic may have caused the spike.
“As we emerged from Covid restrictions and those restrictions were lifted, we were seeing more evidence of young people made more vulnerable by Covid.
“Gangs are particularly good at picking up on vulnerabilities, are quick to pick them up and indeed lure young people and exploit them in criminal acts.
“We think there could be a link there.”
Full list of teenagers killed in the capital
- Chima Osuji, 17, fatally stabbed in Chingford, east London
- Tyler McDermott, 17, shot dead in Tottenham, north London
- Wazabakana Elenda Jordan Kukabu, known as Jordan, stabbed near Dagenham Heathway Underground Station
- Renell Charles, 16, fatally stabbed near his school in Walthamstow
- Khaled Saleh, 17, found with stab wounds in Paddington Green, central London
- Victor Lee, 17, stabbed to death in west London
- Leonardo Reid, 15, fatally stabbed in north London
- Andre Salmon, 18, shot in the chest in Tottenham, north London
- Rahaan Ahmed Amin, 16, stabbed in the heart in West Ham Park in Newham, east London
- Claudyo Jauad Lafayette, 17, fatally stabbed in a fight in the street in northwest London
- Stefan Valentine Balaban, 19, stabbed in Whitchurch Lane, Edgware, north London
- Yusuf Mohamoud, 18, stabbed near Regent’s Park Road, Finchley, north London
- Anis Omar Zen, 19, fatally stabbed in Masefield Avenue in Stanmore, north London
- Max Moy Wheatley, 19, stabbed in Jubilee Country Park close to Tent Peg Lane in Petts Wood, south east London
- Elianne Andam, 15, stabbed in Croydon
