Croydon police strove to reassure the public in the wake of the murder of Chris Isted and the stabbing at a hotel over the weekend.

The move came after a fatal stabbing at the Ship pub on Friday, followed by a stabbing on Sunday morning at the Hampton by Hilton hotel in Dingwall Road.

Deputy Borough Commander, Superintendent Rob Atkin, said in a statement: "Following the tragic murder and a separate stabbing in the town centre that happened last weekend, I would like to reassure those who live in, work in or visit Croydon town centre that incidents of this nature are relatively rare and arrests were made extremely swiftly in connection with both incidents.

"I can also confirm that neither the fatal stabbing in Croydon High Street in the early hours of Saturday morning, nor the incident in Dingwall Road on Sunday morning was linked to gangs.

"I can't go into any more specific detail about the incidents, as the investigations are ongoing, but I would like to stress that these weren't random attacks and that we believe in both cases that people involved were previously known to each other.

"We take violent crime and particularly knife crime extremely seriously and as a result of recent changes we've made to our policing of the town centre, we had officers at both scenes extremely quickly and this has enabled us to make a number of arrests and progress swiftly with our investigations.

"Croydon town centre has a very busy and vibrant night time economy - especially at weekends. We work closely with the local authority and local partners and businesses to ensure that we have a policing plan in place to deal with this.

"Incidents like the two we have seen over the past weekend are still relatively rare and the vast majority of people coming for a night out in Croydon do have a safe and enjoyable time."

The last murder in the town centre was in 2008.

Teenager Oliver Kingonzila was stabbed to death outside E Bar, in South End, after a fight broke out with a Croydon College colleague.

The 19-year-old Surrey Schools footballer was knifed eight times, including blows to the head and neck, and died on September 13 2008.

Tristan Burke, also 19, admitted stabbing Mr Kingonzila after the pair became embroiled in a dispute over a girl.

Bumping into each other at a private party at E Bar, they went outside to fight.

Burke, of Station Road, Croydon, pulled a knife, concealed in his shoe, and stabbed Mr Kingonzila before fleeing the scene.

He was sentenced to life after pleading guilty at The Old Bailey the following year.