A 15-year-old schoolgirl from south London has described how no fewer than seven of her friends and relatives have been murdered in the past two years.

Takeya, who has yet to take her GCSEs, lives in Stockwell, a focal point for much of the violence. She has decided to speak out – using a pseudonym – to demonstrate how the culture of teenage gang violence is blighting the lives of so many of her generation.

In the most recent incident, just 16 days ago, Nicholas Clarke, 19, a friend of hers, was killed by a gunshot to the head.

The murders were part of a spree of shootings and stabbings of young men that saw 27 teenagers murdered in London last year alone, a third of them south of the Thames. A further 11 teenagers have already been killed this year and a man in his twenties is currently in a critical condition after being shot in the head in northwest London.

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BACKGROUND

• Factfile: teenagers gunned down across UK

• Three murders in four days in South London

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Nationally, there were 37 murders last year in which both the victim and killer were under 18.

“The world we are living in today, my friends and I are thinking, ‘Who’s next?’,” she said. “So many unexpected deaths have happened that we never thought would happen to any of us, it could be any of us next. You are not really safe anywhere.” Ten years ago, the Metropolitan police set up Operation Trident in an attempt to reduce gang violence, much of it drug-related, in the black community. Since then there have been numerous prosecutions with jail sentences totalling 852 years handed out in 2005-6 to criminals convicted under Trident. But the killings have continued.

Police this weekend spoke of “six to 10 really dangerous streets” in deprived areas of London with high ethnic-minority populations, as accounting for a high proportion of the capital’s murders.

Takeya’s first experience of the grief brought by the gangs was in June 2006, when Alex Mulumba, a 15-year-old from nearby Kennington whom she knew, was stabbed to death while returning home from finishing his end-of-year exams. She went to his funeral and struggled to comprehend the reason for his death.

Five months later a close relative of hers, Arian Arthur, 22, was shot dead in a nightclub one Friday night, apparently because he had dared to talk to a girl who another man liked.

The whole family went to see Arian’s mother, Wilma Francis, the next day. “Me and my sister went up the road that afternoon and we could hear the screams from inside that flat from three blocks away,” Takeya said.

Two days later, Takeya, then 14, was back at school. But life was far from normal.

“I took the newspaper which carried a story about the murder with me so when people asked what was wrong I kept taking it out to show them,” she said.

“All I could hear in my head was my uncle shouting and my mum and Arian’s mum screaming. I keep reliving that night and my schoolwork really suffered after Arian’s death.”

Wilma Francis confirmed the effect the violence has had on Takeya. She said: “Takeya is very strong-minded but all the death has taken its toll on her. She is no longer the bubbly and outgoing girl she used to be.

“People used to say gun crime was getting to be like it is in America, but I think things are worse than that now. Too many people are getting away with killing.”

Since Arian’s death the murders of people Takeya knew have struck with searing frequency. February 2007 was one of her worst months. James Andre Smartt-Ford, 17, known as Dre, was shot twice at close range at a disco at Streatham Ice Arena. Less than two weeks later on Valentine’s Day, 15-year-old Billy Cox was shot dead in his home in Clapham. Nobody has been charged with either killing.

“Billy came to Arian’s funeral and then just months later he was shot dead too,” said Takeya.

Five months later, one of Takeya’s best friends, 16-year-old Abukar Mahamud, was the next to die.

“We actually heard the gunshots that night but didn’t think anything of it,” she said.

Ten minutes later, Takeya saw her friend’s lifeless body. He had been shot in the neck after being chased by youths on bicycles.

“I rolled him over and I could see there was no life in him but I carried on calling his name,” she said. “Even though I knew, I blocked out the thoughts of him being dead. I was leaning over him when the police came and dragged me off him.”

Abukar, known to his friends as Buka, came from a Somali Muslim family. Takeya and her friends did not attend the funeral, but she said: “We went to the pound shop and bought ribbons and candles and incense and had our own ceremony.

“We tidied up the place where he died and swept up the leaves and wrote messages for him.”

A few weeks after Mahamud’s death Nathan Foster, an 18-year-old youth worker whom Takeya knew, was gunned down in the street by a motorcyclist while trying to calm an argument.

Takeya first met Foster through his work with youth groups, only to realise he was already familiar with her family.

“He knew my brother and he was telling me all about my own family,” she said.

Then earlier this month came the shooting of Nicholas Clarke.

Takeya, who says she is trying to “clear my mind” before her exams in May, said: “The disgusting people that do these things can go home and sleep as normal. I want to experience more of life but if I die I know I’ve got Arian and Abukar and the others up there with me.”

Detective Superintendent Gary Richardson, one of the officers running Operation Trident, said: “I have known some people who have known more than one victim of a murder, but not as many as this girl. It takesa bizarre set of circumstances.”

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