3 men killed in 12-hour wave of knife violence in London

Three men in their twenties were stabbed to death in little over 12 hours in London as the British capital's toll of street killings are close to a record high in a decade, media reports said on Friday.

The latest round of bloodshed began at 2 pm (GMT) on Thursday when Exauce Ngimbi, 22, was hacked to death by a machete-wielding gang near his mother's home in Hackney, east London.

The second attack happened outside Harrods in Knightsbridge in central London. Paramedics fought for 40 minutes to save the victim's life before he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Two hours later and some 10 kilometres east in Deptford, a man died from stab wounds on a housing estate opposite a nature reserve in Bronze Street, southeast London.

The knife killings brought the number of homicide investigations launched in London this year to 129, five fewer than 2018's decade-high total of 134, according to reports.