KEY POINTS:
LONDON - A 15-year-old boy was shot dead in south London today, becoming the third teenage boy to be gunned down in the area this month, police said.
London Police Chief Ian Blair has called a meeting with colleagues tomorrow following the spate of murders, the Metropolitan Police said.
"We would like to reassure the communities in south London that we are taking the current situation very seriously and are doing everything in our power to find those responsible," the police said in a statement.
In the latest killing, officers were called to an address in Lambeth, where they found the boy with a gunshot wound.
Paramedics also attended but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Cordons were put up around the area as a murder investigation got underway.
Another 15-year-old boy, Michael Dosunmu, was shot dead at his house in Peckham, south London, on Feb 6. Three days earlier, James Smartt-Ford, 16, was gunned down a few miles away at Streatham ice rink.
Despite the rising death toll, police insisted overall gun crime in London continued to fall.
- REUTERS