LONDON — Nine years after Britain outlawed handguns, the killing of three teenagers in London has given rise to mounting concern about gun crime involving gangs of youths.Police stepped up armed patrols in south London where all three died. One official described them as victims of fashion — the violent fashion of the streets where guns are equated with status.

Billy Cox, 15, was shot dead in a public housing estate on Wednesday. On February 6, 15-year-old Michael Dosunmu was shot to death in his bedroom, three days after James Andre Smartt-Ford, 16, was killed by a gunman at an ice rink in the city.

"It's becoming more dangerous — they're too many gangs," said Jacklyn Angioni, 14, who lived in the same housing complex as Billy Cox.

"The kids are crazy, " said Calabash Brian, 53, another neighbourhood resident.

Possession of handguns was largely outlawed in 1998, in reaction to the massacre two years earlier of 16 kindergarten pupils and their teacher in Dunblane, Scotland, by a man armed with four legally owned handguns.

Gun crime is rare but increasing. Firearm offences — including shootings and threats — fell below 6,000 in England and Wales in 1998-1999, but exceeded 10,000 in the two most recent years, according to the Home Office.

Two-fifths of those offences were armed robberies, and the 46 homicides involving firearms was the lowest total since the late 1980s.

(New York City, with 8 million people compared to 53 million in England and Wales, recorded at least 579 homicides last year. South Africa, with 47 million people, logged 51 homicides per day in 2004-2005.)

Gun crime in London fell 14 percent last year, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair told reporters after an emergency meeting with commanders, but that was "no comfort to the families involved."

He promised to step up high-visibility patrols in the area. Police have also called for lowering the minimum age for the mandatory five-year sentence for illegal gun possession from 21 to 17.

Joanna Harrison, 37, said her daughter knew Billy, who had been a target for abuse.

"He got beat up for no reason. People went and bottled him and his mother in his own home. He got hammered. He looked like the Elephant Man," Harrison said.

Cox wasn't part of a gang and that made him vulnerable, she said.

"It is all about gun culture. Who is wearing bling (flashy jewelry), the latest trainers (sneakers), everything. If you are not wearing the same things as everyone else you are different and they will target you," Harrison said.

London police set up Operation Trident in 1998 to combat gun crime in the black community, much of its involving drug dealers.

More than 300 police officers and 70 support staff are assigned to Operation Trident, which has claimed many successes. In 2005-2006, officers arrested and charged a suspect in every murder case investigated, won life sentences in 12 cases of gun crime, seized 117 firearms and $350,000 (US$700,000) in cash. Cox's case was the first taken up by Operation Trident in which the victim was not black, Metropolitan Police said.

"Guns have gone from the domain of the crack-cocaine dealers to now being an everyday accessory, a fashionable accessory, that young people want to be seen with, unfortunately," said Claudia Webbe, vice chair of an independent panel which advises Operation Trident.

"I think that's what's motivating young people, where a gun has become almost a status symbol, demanding respect and power," Webbe said in an interview with BBC radio.

A Home Office report last year found that a handgun which has already been used in a crime could be bought for [POUNDSTERLING]150-200 while a "clean" 9mm gun would fetch $1,000 (US$2,000) or more.

Police have recently expressed concern about the spread of a "junior corps" in the drug gangs.

"Most of the older ones are in prison and the younger ones are trying to take over," said Shamsideen Quad, 35. "They tend to be reckless."