LONDON, Jan 8 — A 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death in broad daylight on a London bus on Tuesday in the latest knife-crime incident in the British capital, police said.

The victim was killed on one of the city’s familiar double-decker red buses in Woolwich, south-east London, police said in a statement.

Paramedics treated the boy for stab wound injuries at the scene, "but he very sadly died shortly after medics arrived,” the statement added. No arrest was immediately reported.

The incident comes after an 11-year-old girl was seriously injured in a stabbing in the busy Leicester Square area of London last August.

A 32-year-old man was later arrested.

In September, a teenager was stabbed to death in the same area of Woolwich. Three young men have been charged and will face trial over the killing that the prosecutor described as "tit-for-tat violence with all the hallmarks of a turf war”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called knife crime a "national crisis”.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote on X on Tuesday that his "thoughts are with the family, friends and wider community in Greenwich following the appalling fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old boy.”

Matthew Pennycook, the Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, said he was "deeply saddened that yet another young life has been lost in our community”.

Office for National Statistics data released in October said that knife crime in England and Wales was up four percent in the 12 months to June compared to the previous year.

It was still lower than pre-pandemic levels, however.

The Labour government, in power since July, has pledged to halve knife crime in the next decade.

A ban on some knives and machetes came into force in September and the government hopes to prohibit ninja swords. — AFP