Barnet stabbing: Fifth murder probe in six days as man dies in 'full-on' street knife battle

Scotland Yard today opened a fifth murder investigation in six days after a man in his 30s was stabbed to death in a “full-on” knife battle on a quiet London street.

The victim was killed as two groups attacked each other with blades, chains and broomhandles in the tree-lined road of family homes in Barnet.

One was left with “a hole in his arm like a dog had ripped it” and blood was spattered on parked cars, witnesses said.

A woman who raced to the scene in Welbeck Road was heard to scream: “It’s my son, it’s my son” as paramedics fought to save his life.

The man was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight. Neighbours said he was a father of two boys, aged seven and nine.

Scotland Yard said officers and paramedics found two other men suffering stab wounds.

A man in his twenties and another in his thirties were today in hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Residents were disturbed by men shouting and screaming just before 11pm.

One neighbour, who ran outside with bandages to treat the casualties, said: “There were three of them on the floor and blood everywhere. One had a hole in his arm like a dog had ripped it.

“There was a knife sheath on the ground and a chain nearby. It was a full-on battle.

“The ones who attacked them came around the back of the victim’s house, they must have known him. They chase them on to the street. There was blood even on the cars. It was brutal.”

Another witness, a mother of two, said: “Later a woman arrived and was shouting ‘It’s my son, it’s my son’. She was standing over a man who had been stabbed as paramedics worked on him.

“She was in distress. It was horrific to hear the screams of a mum watching her child die.”

She said there were three other young men at the scene, two who were also injured.

The witness said: “It’s not what you expect in Barnet. It’s a family area we are all very upset by this. We have kids, it seems nowhere is safe.”

Another witness described seeing two men vaulting garden fences as they fled the murder scene.

The pair allegedly jumped through gardens as a police helicopter hovered above,

The witness said: “There were two jumping over garden fences they looked petrified. The police helicopter was overhead, they looked hunted and scared. They were looking this way and that.

“It was like something out of a film. There is a warren of alleys around the back of the houses where the stabbing took place.”

Police were today searching nearby gardens where it is believed some of those involved in the stabbing had ran for cover.

London’s latest murder spree began on Friday and continued with 55 hours of mayhem that saw four murders in four days and at least seven other stabbings and shootings.

Cheyon Evans, 18, a painting and decorating student at Lambeth College, died on Friday afternoon after being stabbed repeatedly in Tooting.

Twelve minutes later, Eniola Aluko, 19, was shot dead in a car park near Plumstead station in south-east London.

At 2pm the following day, building firm boss Gleb Stanislavovitch Zhebrovsky, 34, was fatally knifed in a field next to a nursery and a mosque in Albion Street, Poplar.

And in the early hours of Monday, Lithuanian national Giedrius Juskauskas, 42, was stabbed to death in Stratford, east London.

The Metropolitan Police said it had stepped up patrols and searches in known hotspots.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101 quoting CAD8638/18June or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.