Still more towpath knife attacks

THOUGH people have been warned to keep away from the Regent's Canal towpath after dark, the advice is being ignored, with dire consequences.

Two more people have now been stabbed in vicious attacks on the towpath in separate incidents, with both needing hospital treatment for their wounds, Alan Tilbury reveals.

Punctured lung

It was late January that the incidents occurred, with one at 8.45pm and the other a little later on the towpath at the back of the Packington Estate. In the first incident a cyclist was riding along the canal towpath, and two youths approaching from the opposite direction, so he moved over to miss them, but one grabbed him, pulling the startled cyclist from his bike and stabbing him in the back, puncturing his lung, then running away.  The cyclist  was taken to hospital for treatment.

It was near the Narrowboat pub (the picture shows the towpath outside the pub) that the second incident happened, when a Finnish couple were approached by two teenagers with the man threatened and his girl friend pushed aside.  One of the thugs, without warning, then stabbed the man twice, once in the body and once in the face, just missing his eye, then again running away.

Needed more surgery

An ambulance was called and the man was taken to hospital for surgery then released but needing more surgery.

Once again the police are telling that the incidents are being treated very seriously, with Acting Detective Sergeant James Howarth, of Islington CID, stating:

"Islington police are treating these incidents extremely seriously. We have a team of officers working on the case and have increased our patrols in the area."

Shootings and stabbings

It was last May that narrowboatworld reported the shooting and stabbing on the Regents Canal towpath; then in early December a knife wielding gang of 15; then in early January reported two armed robberies on the towpath; and now more stabbings.

One thing is clear, the canal towpath is a very unsafe place to be after dark.  It is advisable to take police advice and keep away.