It comes as the Home Office announced a raft of anti-knife crime plans on Wednesday, including making retailers report bulk or suspicious sales to police, and increasing the jail sentence for selling weapons to children, or illegal blades such as zombie knives, to two years.
Patrick Azille, 60, who lives streets away from where the stabbing happened explained people are too frightened to talk to each other around Hackney Downs.
Four of the five victims have been adult males, and the other was 14-year-old boy Kelyan Bokassa – who was stabbed around 27 times as he travelled home on a route 472 bus in Woolwich, south-east London, on January 7.
A crime scene will remain in place around Bodney Road until the forensic teams conclude an examination of the area, a spokesman said.
A large team of forensics officers could be seen closely searching the grass around the Birchington House estate while a tent was put up metres away outside the Marden House estate.
