A community pastor from Lambeth is urging churches to pray for their cities and streets.

It's after Tyson Fury's cousin Rico Burton was stabbed to death in the early hours of Sunday morning, 23rd August 2022.

He's now urging ministers to take action in tackling knife crime. 

Pastor Lorraine Jones Burrell started her work through the Dwayne Simpson Foundation after she lost her son Dwayne eight years ago to knife crime. 

The foundation helps to create awareness of knife crime and deter young people from gang crime.

She told Premier it's vital that churches and the government take action: "I urge churches, please go out into the streets, pray!

"Let us claim back our streets, rid it from that violence, that spirit that wants to take lives and the church is in the best position to execute that because we understand and we can.

"It's been eight years since Dwayne has passed, it doesn't feel like eight years, but every time I hear of another knife attack and fatality, it brings it back fresh.

"I have an urgency that we've got to keep on doing what he have to do, to stop this and we can only do it together."

Pastor Burrell shed light on how Christians and churches came to her aid when she lost Dwayne: "When I first lost my son, I cried out to all churches, in fact, people of all faith, because as the church, we have a level of understanding spiritual understanding, and compassion, to be able to reach out without any boundaries. 

"I was thankful that I had the number of ministers that came and we prayed over the road, the spot where Dwayne was killed, we sanctified that ground. 

"We said we don't want any more attacks and I can say there hasn't been an attack on that road."

Pastor Burrell says how she felt when she heard the news of Tyson's cousin: "It's a horror, because it's a lived experience and it just brings that urgency, that we can't relax on the interventions, the prayers, that intervention of outreach that we have to continually do, because we want to prevent another life being taken. 

"There's so much work that needs to be done."