London

    Grenfell Tower residents heckled and booed the new leader of Kensington and Chelsea council during a stormy public meeting. Shouts of shame on you rang out from the chamber as Elizabeth Campbell was formally elected after being nominated by the local Conservative group. Others cried out murderers. She replaced former council leader Nicholas Paget-Brown, who resigned in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed at least 80 people. As Ms Campbell addressed the chamber in Kensington Town Hall and at times could not be heard amid the yells of resign, prompting calls for order She said: We meet at a time of unimaginable grief and sorrow. The Grenfell fire is the biggest civilian disaster in this country for a generation. But as she described how she had spent the past f...

    Police officers announced on social-networking site Twitter today that they will be patrolling the route including Rotherhithe and Blackwall tunnels and Westferry Circus to stop a Big Summer Take over event with boy racers. Do not come to the area for this event and risk losing your car, the Tower Hamlets Met Police division warns. Any unnecessary noise, antisocial behaviour or traffic offences will be dealt with robustly to prevent disruption to the community and other road users. They plan to use road closures and disbursal zones, giving officers powers to disburse perpetrators of crime and ASB and even to seize vehicles if necessary. The takeover event has been promoted on Facebook at non-disclosed locations despite the police having got wind of them. The invitation spe...

    One of London’s most prolific moped gangs responsible for an extraordinary crimewave of 103 offences in 18 days has been smashed by police. The teenage offenders – aged 15, 16 and 17 – grabbed phones from pedestrians in Westminster, Camden, Islington, and Kensington and Chelsea during their crime spree. In one horrifying incident, captured on film by an Evening Standard photographer, the boys took part in a raid in which two moped riders carrying pillion passengers mounted the pavement outside the BBC’s headquarters near Oxford Circus. One was wielding a hammer and another used a crowbar to intimidate terrified passers-by as they rode at high speed along footpaths to snatch phones from their owners. The trio, who are all from Islington, are now in custody awaiting sentence...

    Muslim hijab-wearing women are the silent victims A suspected hate crime is being investigated by police after a man tried to pull off a Muslim woman's hijab. The man also spat at the woman's friend as they waited for a Tube at Baker Street, central London, in the early hours of Saturday morning. The woman, who tweets under the name Aniso Abdulkadir, posted a picture of the man who allegedly attacked her on the social media site. This man at Baker Street station forcefully attempted to pull my hijab off and when I instinctively grabbed ahold of my scarf he hit me, she tweeted. He proceeded to verbally abuse my friends and I, pinning one of them against the wall and spitting in her face. By Sunday afternoon, her post was retweeted 24,000 times after she encouraged people to...

    A 31-year-old man has been stabbed to death by two attackers on a moped during an early-morning altercation in south-east London, police said. The victim was fatally wounded during a clash in which shots were also fired in King William Walk, Greenwich, the Metropolitan Police said. He had first been approached by the pair at 12.15am on Saturday. The assailants, both male, then fled the scene on the moped and emergency services arrived to find the man with stab injuries. Despite the efforts of the police and the London Ambulance Service, he was declared dead at the scene. The victim's next of kin have been informed, police said. Detectives have launched a murder investigation and said they retain an open mind as to the motive. With the killers still at large, anyone with in...

    Witness appeal after spate of acid attacks in east London street robberies. A second arrest has been made by detectives investigating five linked acid attacks in east and north London late last night, Scotland Yard has confirmed. Hackney Road traffic light junction with Queensbridge Road... scene of first of five acid attacks. Picture: Google Officers called at an address this-morning where a 15-year-old youth was taken into custody on suspicion of GBH and robbery. It follows the earlier arrest of 16-year-old on suspicion of the same offences after being identified near the scene of one of the attacks by local authority CCTV operators. Both youths are in custody. This is a fast moving investigation and we have made two arrests today, Chief Insp Ben Clark said. These hideou...

    The stabbing took place in Brick Lane this afternoon. A police investigation is underway after a young man was stabbed in Brick Lane this afternoon. The victim, who is believed to be in his late teens or early 20s, was knifed in the busy street at around 4.20pm. Police and paramedics were called to the scene and the victim was rushed to hospital. His condition is unknown.

Service users took part in the official opening of the Reset Drug and Alcohol Services on a 'Recovery Walk' event on Monday 3 July. Previously, services were split across several points of contact but now anyone requiring help with their drug / alcohol use can access support from a single point of access. Divisional Director of Community Safety at Tower Hamlets Council, Ann Corbett and Marie Gabriel, Trust Chair of the NHS East London Foundation Trust opened the Reset Treatment Service at Beaumont House, Mile End Hospital. The recovery walk started outside Beaumont House and concluded at the Reset Recovery Support Service, 183 Whitechapel Road, where staff heard stories from clients on their recovery journey. Around 50 service users were in attendance throughout the day and visitors were a...

Tower Hamlets pupils cooked up a veritable feast for their school community and special visitors, from produce they had grown for the official opening of their edible playground project. The children created canapes and dips from the fruit and vegetable garden they have cultivated themselves. Mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, was on hand to open the edible playground spaces. He said: "Helping local children grow their own nutritious food can bring so many benefits to their health and well being and it was wonderful to see how enthusiastic and involved the children were in this project. I'm also happy to say it all tasted fantastic – a real tribute to their new found skills". Officially launched on Friday, the project is designed to provide schools in urban areas the opportunity to grow f...

    Police are appealing for witnesses and information after a spate of five acid attacks during street robberies across east London late last night all thought to be connected. The Home Office is considering tough new restrictions on corrosive substances after a new string of acid attacks in London, amid calls from one London MP for tougher sentences for possession of harmful acids. Overnight, a 16-year-old boy was arrested as police launched a major investigation into a series of acid attacks that took place in less than 90 minutes across east London on Thursday night, with one victim said to have suffered life-changing injuries. The Labour MP for East Ham, Stephen Timms, said carrying acid should be made an offence and suggested licensing the purchase of Sulphuric acid, l...