Violent crimes on the London Underground have been increasing steadily since Sadiq Khan became Mayor in 2016, with 2023 being the worst year ever on record.
The spiralling figures show that the number of crimes reported on the Tube between January and December 2023 hit a record 22,562, this is up a massive 66 percent from the same period in 2022.
The data compiled by MailOnline shows the gradual increase of crimes per million passenger journeys over a 15 year period from 2009 to 2024.
However, the curve of the graph shows that the crime rate was actually declining from 2009 to 2016, hitting it’s lowest crime rate of 7.3 just before Sadiq Khan took over as Mayor of London.
March 2023 was the worst month on record with a crime rate of 24.9. This is excluding data complied around Covid which is skewed as ridership plummeted during this time due to government restrictions being in place.
Most recent data for the first quarter of 2024 is also bleak and showed little signs of improvement with 6,319 crimes being reported across January, February and March.
That is more than 70 crimes being reported per day.
This comes amid a wave of disturbing new footage of violent, racists, sexist and anti-Semitic assaults being published online by scared passengers, including a recent brutal attack on a man at Waterloo station.
The family of a Ian Airlie claim he died after being pushed down an escalator at London Waterloo after he was ‘set upon’ by a group of masked men.
Police revealed the 48-year-old was found dead at his home in Greenwich, south-east London, on October 10, nearly a month after the incident.
Mr Airlie’s family told officers he had been pushed down Waterloo Station’s Jubilee Line escalator at 5.05pm on September 15.
His cousin Sarah Strugnell, 50, said he had been set upon by a group of masked men.
She added: ‘Something clearly happened, he was found with stamp marks to his chest and suffered a serious head injury.
‘We called him Little Ian, his dad was big Ian. They lived together as Ian was caring for his dad. His dad can now not face going back to the house.
‘He found out about Ian’s death while he was in hospital and he has been there ever since. It’s a complete shock,’ she told the Metro.
Another sick attack just this week happened at Green Park station, where an unknown man whipped a woman in the face with his belt.
In the footage published on X the man can be heard shouting as he moves up and down the platform, trying to avoid two men trying to grab him.
In a fit of rage he lashes out with his belt catching a woman trying to board the train.
At the end of the video British Transport Police can be seen arriving to take the suspect away.
British Transport Police have been approached for comment.
Another shocking incident in February 2024 took place when homeless Brwa Shorsh, 24, pushed an innocent stranger, Tadeusz Potoczek, onto the tracks at Oxford Circus underground station just seconds before the train pulled in.
Mr Potoczek had been hurrying home to catch a flight and was looking at the arrivals board when he was attacked in what prosecutor Sam Barker described as ‘the thing of nightmares’.
The Kurdish migrant had claimed he’d targeted the 60-year-old in ‘revenge’ after thinking Mr Potoczek had given him a ‘dirty look’.
Fortunately Mr Potoczek, a postman, missed the electrified rail and was helped back onto the platform by a passer-by who rushed to his aid.
The driver had put on the emergency brake and his train was just four seconds away from hitting the victim.
Shorsh, who has accumulated convictions of assault and indecent acts since arriving in Britain in 2019, had denied trying to kill his victim and claimed he did not know a train was arriving at the time.
But in July that year he was found guilty of attempted murder by a jury at Inner London Crown Court after just 32 minutes of deliberations and he was jailed for life with a minimum term of eight years.
In August 2023 a drunk tube passenger tried to throw a woman onto the train tracks, he was later jailed for ten years.
Arthur Hawrylewicz, 42, pleaded guilty to attempting to murder then 22-year-old Maria Osifeso as she travelled to Notting Hill carnival in London with friends.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Osifeso said she now stands with her back to the wall while waiting for trains on the London Underground, as she said the attack has left her with ‘overwhelming anxiety’ while riding the Tube.
Prosecutor Suki Dhadda said the pharmacist was waiting at the platform of King’s Cross Underground station at about 1.15pm when ‘she felt arms wrap around her waist in a bear hug-style grip’.
‘She was then picked up by someone, her feet left the floor and she was swung to the left, she thought in an attempt to put her on the track or in front of the train which was pulling into the station.’
Inner London Crown Court heard how she was saved by friends, including Constantinos Spyrou, who got between them and forced Hawrylewicz on to the ground, where he moved like a ‘fish in a bellyflop movement’, hitting his head on the train and being knocked unconscious.
A brutal machete attack at Edgware road tube station in November saw ambulance crews called to save a man who had been stabbed multiple times.
Two teenaged boys, aged 16 and 17, along with a 20-year-old man were late arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
The attacker, dressed in grey sweatpants, a black hoodie and wearing a balaclava, can be seen in the video with the enormous machete at the entrance to the station.
As an eyewitness films the vicious stabbing, the attacker can be seen making several attempts to swipe at someone laying on the ground.
After the attacker finally runs away, the camera moves in closer to reveal a man injured holding his side.
In the background, a staff member for Transport for London can be seen walking towards the injured victim.
At the time Detective Chief Inspector Steve May said: ‘Enquiries into this incident are ongoing and passengers will see an increased police presence in the area as a result.’
Another horrifying incident from April last year showed a violent female thug touring London filming herself attacking commuters and shop workers as part of a sick ‘chaos for clout’ social media trend.
Shocking footage shows the menace battering unsuspecting victims in the face, in sick videos reminiscent of the pranks by teenage tearaway, Mizzy.
In one clip, the violent yob is seen hitting another female in the face while on the London Underground’s Bakerloo Line.
‘Don’t look at me like that again,’ the aggressive woman goads and she looms over her victim, who is innocently sitting down and looking at her phone.
Another woman filming the altercation appears to egg the ‘prankster’ on, saying ‘slap, slap’.
‘I swear to God, I will box you in your face,’ the woman continues, before then appearing to punch her victim in the nose.
‘You f***ing understand, you b****,’ she yells, before then attacking her shocked victim again while she screams, as panicked commuters scramble away from the mayhem.
In December 2022 a woman launched a racist tirade at a passenger on the Jubilee line – before blaming a ‘spiked drink’ for her behaviour.
Janice Wilding, 49 from Lambeth, south London, can be heard saying: ‘Don’t f***ing bring my mother into it. Because I’ll rip you apart b***.
‘I will rip you apart. Because you’re black and you think you’re big innit [sic]. Shut your f***ing mouth’.
As she continues on her tirade, other passengers can be seen gathering around her to hold her back, pleading: ‘Please get off the train’.
The defence is met with hostility, as Wilding yells at them: ‘Get your f***ing hands off of me. She’s a f***ing n****’.
One woman then successfully escorts Wilding off the train, as she continues to yell expletives from across the carriage.
The video, taken by witness Anyusha Rose, was shown to police following the incident.
After being reviewed, officers recognised Wilding from an incident at a hotel earlier the same day and she was arrested in January 2023
Witness Ms Rose recalled being on a ‘fairly busy’ carriage where ‘clearly drunk’ Wilding called other passengers ‘boring’ for not joining her songs then threatened to put them on YouTube, said prosecutor Edmund Blackman.
One woman was ‘particularly uncomfortable’ with being filmed and tried to grab Wilding’s phone when she pointed it at her, triggering a wave of racist abuse.
Wilding said to the Black woman ‘Where the f**k you come from?’ and ‘Go back to Africa, you don’t belong here’.
When the victim got up to move away, Wilding lunged at her and threw a punch but missed. Another passenger intervened and blocked the route, but Wilding carried on trying to hit her whilst screaming more abuse, the court was told.
‘Go back to Africa… Black c***… Bring it on you think you’re hard because you’re Black,’ said Mr Blackman, and used the n-word.
In a disgusting display of anti-Semitism last March, one Jewish man is wearing a kippah and riding the Northern Line when a vape-puffing passenger told him ‘your religion is killing Muslims’.
In footage shared by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, who decided the blur the face of the passenger, he is seen appearing to goad the Jewish man by blowing smoke from his red vape towards him.
The Jewish man, who is recording the interaction, questions why the passenger is staring at him after he moves down the empty carriage to sit directly across from him.
‘Have you got a problem?’ he asks him.
After a few tense seconds with no reply, he asks: ‘Why have you got a problem? Why are you looking at me?’
The passenger replies: ‘Your religion kills Muslims, that’s why.’
The shocked Jewish man responds: ‘What?’
‘You kill Muslims’ replies the man, who then confirms that he is a Muslim.
The pair begin to have an argument after the Jewish man accuses him of being inconsiderate due to his vaping on the underground, with the Muslim man responding ‘I don’t give a sh**’.
Then the Jewish man said: ‘I haven’t done anything to you, you’ve got an issue with me, I’ve got no problem with you.’
The passenger replied: ‘You’ve done a lot… You’re wearing the hat.’
After being called out for wearing the hat, which is a brimless cap known as a kippah or yamaka worn by most Orthodox Jewish men at all times, the Jewish man bravely said: ‘So what you’re doing is called anti-Semitism. You’re anti-Semitic.’
‘But you kill Muslims’ responds the man, who has been pixelated for legal reasons.
The Jewish man replies: ‘I’ve done nothing. I’ve sat here on the tube. What you’re doing is anti-Semitic. You’ve got no idea what’s going on in my head.’
‘But your religion supports killing Muslims’ responds the vape-smoker.
As the Jewish man loudly denounces the Muslim’s behaviour – labelling it anti-Semitic several times – the vape smoker said: ‘You’re recording me innit?’
‘Yeah of course, because what you’re doing is anti-Semitic. I’ll deal with it. You’re an idiot’ replies the Jewish man who then stands up and leaves the train.
Transport for London has been approached by MailOnline for comment.
