David Lammy has described the bloodshed on the streets of London as the “worst he has ever seen” following a spate of murders in the capital.

The Tottenham MP said they was "absolutely no sign" of any reduction in the violence, after a week that saw another four killings in the city, including the death of a teenage girl in his constituency.

Tanesha Melbourne, 17, was shot dead in a drive-by attack in Chalgrove Road, Tottenham, on Monday evening, just half an hour before 16-year-old Amaan Shakoor was killed in a shooting just two miles away in Markhouse Road, Walthamstow.

Mr Lammy told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that drugs were as "prolific as ordering a pizza", and warned that the police have "lost control of that drugs market".

He said: "I've been an MP now for 18 years and I'm afraid what we're seeing today is the worst I've ever seen it.

"I've had four deaths in the London Borough of Haringey since January, I've had as many knife attacks as there have been weeks in the year.

"There are parents, friends, families, schools, traumatised and grieving, and there is absolutely no sign, I've got to tell you at the moment, of reduction in the violence."

He said an "£11 billion cocaine drugs market" drives gangs in turf wars, adding: "We are the drugs market of Europe and I think the police and our country has lost control of that drugs market.

"You have young children - as young as 12, 13 - being recruited into gangs to run drugs across county lines."

He said he was "hearing nothing" about what is being done about the rise in the drugs market.

"Drugs are prolific - it's like Deliveroo, they're as prolific as ordering a pizza.

"You can get them on Snapchat, WhatsApp - that, in the end, is driving the turf war and it's driving the culture of violence - that is obviously ramped up by social media - but the culture of violence that I think is now becoming endemic in parts of London."

Some 48 people have been killed in the capital so far in 2018, in an almost unprecedented string of violence that has seen the capital’s murder rate spike higher than New York’s.

Wednesday evening saw two more murders in Hackney after a man in his 20s was stabbed to death in Link Street, hours after a man in his 50s had been killed in an altercation outside a bookmakers less than two miles away in Upper Clapton Road.

Mr Lammy added that despite four deaths in Haringey during the spate of killings, he had not had a phone call from Home Secretary Amber Rudd or London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

"No-one has come to visit my constituency. This is happening across London at large,” he said.

"Frankly, I'm sick of the political football: what I want is a political consensus."

He went on to call on Mr Khan and the Government to have a clear consensus on reducing violence.

"Communities have to step up and people have to take responsibility, parents have to take responsibility and I'm not one to shirk that.

“But communities need support and resources if they are to do this, and the Government and the Mayor need to be clear with a consensus that their ambition is to reduce violence across this city."