Five people including a 16-year-old girl have been arrested in connection with the murder of Shakilus Townsend, the latest teenage victim of London’s wave of fatal stabbings.

Two boys aged 16 and 17, plus two men aged 18 and 22, were also being questioned by detectives after Shakilus, known as Shaki, was stabbed and beaten to death in Thornton Heath, south London on Thursday.

One line of enquiry that police are examining is that the 16-year-old was killed following a dispute about a girl, amid reports that a teenage girl might have lured Shakilus into a trap.

One of the five arrests was made on Saturday night, while the other four took place yesterday morning (sun), Scotland Yard said.

They came as Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said that hospitals could soon be forced to report admissions involving stab wounds to the police, as they are already compelled to do with gunshot wounds.

Ms Smith admitted that current statistics on knife crime “don’t always tell the whole story” and said it was important for the authorities to get “a true picture of what’s actually happening”.

Speaking in response to a report by the Channel 4 Street Weapons Commission, she said: “I think it’s pretty unlikely that we would find ourselves in a position where we didn’t expect hospitals to be routinely sharing that information with police and others locally.”

Another senior minister today called for tougher sentences on those caught in possession of blades.

Tony McNulty, the policing minister, said he feared that knife-carrying “is apparently a generational, almost cultural thing that’s getting in the collective DNA.”

He told Sky News it was important to get the message out that “if you carry a knife you either use it, it’s used against you, and potentially you either end up either dead or in prison. And it is as stark as that.

“It is about, frankly, the criminal justice system utilising the policies that we equip them with in terms of statutory sentences and others.”

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, today welcomed the proposal to make hospitals record knife-related admissions: “Whilst we will need to examine any proposal brought forward in detail, given the rising tide of violence on our streets, this would appear to be a sensible move,” he said.

Meanwhile, knife violence continued around the country over the weekend.

Graham Mitchell, 39, will appear in court tomorrow charged with attempted murder after a 25-year-old woman and a 26-year-old man were found stabbed in Newcastle in the early hours of Saturday, while in a separate incident a 19-year-old from Wallasey, Merseyside was stabbed in the stomach on Friday night.

A 25-year-old man was stabbed in the face as he waited for a taxi in Southend, Essex and another man in his 20s was in a “serious but stable” condition last night after being stabbed in Putney Heath, south west London at around 5am yesterday.

Official figures obtained by the Independent on Sunday suggested that the number of people admitted to hospital for wounds and injuries from knives and sharp objects now stands at almost 14,000 a year.

Knife crime has now overtaken terrorism as the Metropolitan Police’s top priority, Deputy Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said on Friday, a day after Shakilus became the 18th teenager to die a violent death in London so far this year.

The 17th, 16-year-old Ben Kinsella, was repeatedly stabbed after leaving a bar in Islington, north London at around 2am last Sunday.

Exactly a week later, in the early hours of yesterday morning, hundreds of people including Ben’s sister, former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, gathered at the spot where he was killed for a candelit vigil.

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