Police officers stand on duty at a police cordon outside the Whitgift Centre on Wellesley Road in Croydon, south London today following the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old girl on her way to school on Wednesday. – AFP photo
LONDON (Sept 29): A teenager was remanded in custody today charged with the murder of a 15-year-old schoolgirl in south London, in the latest case of knife crime in the UK.
Elianne Andam was stabbed to death in Croydon, south London, as she went to school on Wednesday morning.
A 17-year-old boy, whose identity cannot be published because he is under 18, was arrested shortly afterwards.
He appeared at a youth court today charged with murder and possession of a knife.
He was remanded in custody to appear at London’s Old Bailey court on October 3.
Paramedics battled to save the girl after she sustained a knife wound to the neck but she was pronounced dead at the scene 50 minutes later.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said he was “heartbroken” by the fatal incident and pledged to “continue working day and night to end the scourge of knife crime in our city”.
Andam was the 15th teenager killed in London this year. Of those, 13 were stabbed, while two were shot.
According to official figures, 99 people under the age of 25 were killed in England and Wales with a knife or sharp object in the year to March 2023.
Of those 13 were under the age of 16.
The deaths were among 50,000 stabbing incidents in the year to March 2023 — a five percent increase on the previous year and a 75 percent increase on a decade ago, the Office for National Statistics said.
Andam was a pupil at Old Palace of John Whitgift School, a private girls’ school in Croydon.
“We are deeply shocked by the senseless and tragic death of our much-loved and valued friend and pupil,” the school said in a statement.
“It will take some time for the Old Palace community to come to terms with this terrible news.” – AFP