Gang horror in West End

This is the moment a young man lies dying in the street — the latest victim of drink-fuelled violence in the West End.

Paramedics desperately try to save the man who was savagely beaten in a gang attack but their efforts are in vain.

The picture was taken using a hidden camera by Westminster councillor Ian Wilder who regularly films “scenes of anarchy” on Friday and Saturday nights.

Witnesses described how the victim was hit around the head with a belt buckle while several men pinned him to the ground.

He suffered severe head injuries and was pronounced dead at St Thomas’ hospital shortly afterwards.

Mr Wilder described the scene in Whitcomb Street. He said: “The paramedics had just started working on him and there were tubes and medical paraphernalia everywhere. It looked like a battlefield.

“There were three of them trying to get a reaction from him. I think they hadbeen trying to put a tube down his throat to help him breathe.

“He had been surrounded by four or five guys and some held him while others whipped him with a belt. He’s not the only one I’ve photographed over the years who’s been beaten like this. There is an atmosphere of malevolent violence.”

Scotland Yard launched a murder inquiry into the death of the man in his twenties early on Sunday.

Police, who have not yet named the victim, arrested 10 people at the scene.Three were released without charge, one was released on bail and the other six remain in custody at separate police stations. Officers from the Specialist Crime Directorate have launched an inquiry headed by Detective Chief Inspector Dave Cobb.

Anyone with information is urged to ring 020 8358 0200.

Violence in London rose by 10 per cent last year, blamed mainly on binge drinking and yob culture.

The attack was just one of several incidents over the Bank Holiday weekend.

A few hours earlier a 26-yearold man was attacked with a hammer in Tavistock Place, Bloomsbury.

Police believe he may have been the victim of a gang initiation. He was walking with a friend at 12.15am on Monday morning when he was struck over the head from behind with a claw hammer.

Two men fled the scene and the victim was seriously injured.

A resident at the Generator hostel, which backs on to the scene of the attack, said: “I have heard from a number of other guests that this could have been a gang initiation, where you are told to attack someone in order to get into the gang.”

Another guest, a 22-year old who also refused to be named, said: “Everybody here is talking about what happened last night and there is a sense of panic. This is not the sort of thing you imagine will happen in this part of town.”

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: “We are keeping an open mind regarding motive.”

In Clapham a driver mowed down a pedestrian before removing his car’s number plates and driving from the scene.

The victim, in his 40s, was hit in Plough Lane late on Sunday night and is in hospital in a critical condition.

The driver, who fled towards Battersea, is described as a black male, in his late twenties.