Arrests follow yet another stabbing, this time in Coopersale Road, Homerton

Police in Homerton attending a similar incident last year close to where yesterday’s stabbing happened. Photograph: @hackneyhaz via Twitter

Four people have been arrested after the latest in a series of stab attacks in Hackney which are believed to be related to rising tensions between rival street gangs.

Police confirmed they found a man suffering from “facial injuries consistent with a knife” in Coopersale Road, Homerton, yesterday.

He was taken to hospital for treatment, and officers arrested three adults and one juvenile on suspicion of affray and grievous bodily harm.

Passers by saw roads in the area cordoned off yesterday afternoon. The stabbing happened just across the street from Barnabas Road, where a teenager was stabbed around a year ago. 

Overnight Hackney Police also tweeted about a separate incident in Stoke Newington, stating: “An 18-year-old man has been arrested after trying to stab a victim whilst stealing their phone, & then tried to stab a sgt who detained him.”

Inspector Iain Williams, from the Hackney branch of the Met, said members of the public had come to the female officer’s aid after she was attacked by the male suspect.

He praised the bravery of the officer, saying she had managed to step out of the way of “multiple attacks” as she detained the 18-year-old suspect yesterday afternoon.

“The sergeant was punched on the arm by the suspect as she detained him,” he added.

Concerns over decline in stop and search

The violence comes just days after two young men were stabbed only hours apart in Dalston.

Alarm was raised late last year about a series of stabbings in Dalston and Stoke Newington which were investigated by the Met’s gangs unit.

Kelly Reid from The Crib, an initiative in Hackney which promotes awareness of gun and knife crime, said in October that the rise in knife crime may be attributed to declining police use of stop and search.

She told the Hackney Citizen: “In the last three and a half years, at the same time as stop and search has been reduced, knife crime has gone up.”

Two years ago Theresa May, then Home Secretary, outlined reforms of stop and search powers after saying more than a million street searches may have been carried out illegally by police in England and Wales in the previous year.

She advocated more “intelligence-led” operations and an overall reduction in use of the powers. However, arguments over the issue continue – in the capital in particular.

At a recent London Assembly Police and Crime Committee, deputy mayor for policing Sophie Linden, a former Hackney councillor, appeared unable to define what  “intelligence-led” meant.

Update at 1.42 on Monday 23 January: A man in his 30s was found stabbed in the early morning in Kingsland High Road on Sunday 22 January, according to media reports. Hackney Police tweeted about a man with a “life threatening stab wound”.