Elderly man in his 80s stabbed to death whilst riding his mobility scooter in west London

16 August 2022, 21:13 | Updated: 16 August 2022, 22:28

An elderly man who had been riding his mobility scooter in west London was stabbed to death on Tuesday, the Metropolitan Police said.

Officers were called at 4.06pm to Cayton Road, Greenford, to reports of a man with stab injuries, and despite the efforts of paramedics he was declared dead at the scene.

Police are working to inform the next of kin of the man, who is believed to be in his 80, and there have been no arrests.

The Met said: "A crime scene is in place and urgent inquiries to establish what happened are ongoing."

Detective Chief Inspector Jim Eastwood from the Met's Specialist Crime Command said: "My officers are working to understand what has happened to this man, and we need the public's assistance.

"I'm asking for anyone with dash-cam or cycle-helmet footage to contact us if they were using the Western Avenue A40 Eastbound in the proximity of Cayton Road and Welland Gardens between 3:15pm and 4pm.

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"The elderly victim, who was riding a mobility scooter, was in the area at the time. If you saw the victim, or captured anyone acting suspiciously in the area, it is imperative that you make contact."

Chief Superintendent Sean Wilson, lead for policing in Ealing, added: "This is an awful incident that will understandably cause considerable alarm to people locally and across London. Our thoughts are with the elderly victim.

"We are supporting our colleagues in Specialist Crime as they work to understand what has happened and identify who is responsible for this horrific crime. The support of the public is crucial. Police and the community must work together to identify violent offenders and remove them from our streets.

"My officers will remain on scene. They are there to help and protect you - if you have information that you want to share please approach them and tell them what you know."

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Simran Advani, 25, a senior property manager who lives several doors down from where the stabbing took place, told the PA news agency she often saw an elderly man on his mobility scooter.

She said: "We always used to see him on his mobility scooter - he always used to smile, he was a nice old man.

"He often goes round the block, he always went on the road not the pavement. It was dark red.

"We saw him every couple of days.

"This is a very quiet area, you never hear any noise on this street. It's scary for a man in his 80s to be killed here.

"Most people on this road are elderly, you never hear any noise and never see any young people.

"It was just like a normal day today. There's a parade of shops just round the corner under the train tracks and through an alley way which he might have been heading from or to."

So far this year there have been 58 homicides in London including this stabbing of a pensioner on his mobility scooter.

The stabbing comes a day amid a wave of violence that has swept across London in recent days.

On Monday three people were shot in north-west London, police found a 17-year-old boy with a gunshot wound and then came across two more victims, a 21-year-old man and another thought to be in his early 20s.

An investigation has begun but no arrests have been made.

A man was repeatedly stabbed at a Korean restaurant in Poland Street, just off Oxford Street on Monday. A man was arrested.

A 53-year-old man was charged with murder after a victim believed to be 36-year-old Sonny Booty was pronounced dead in Lewisham on Sunday morning.

Police charged a 23-year-old man with the murder of Stephen Goodman, 60, was found with fatal injuries early on Sunday.

Kacey Boothe, a 25-year-old, was killed in a shooting in Walthamstow on Saturday evening.

Police are also investigating an incident where firearms were shot twice within an hour in east London, with a man in his 20s having been stabbed and shot in Bohemia Place. His condition is not life-threatening.