The council leader will meet with the borough’s top police officer after there was another stabbing in Gants Hill.

An argument between a group of men in Cranbrook Road in the early hours of Monday, ended in a 23-year-old man being knifed in the chest and face.

Paramedics and police were called at 1.50am, where the man was treated for his injuries by an air ambulance doctor before being taken to the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel.

Reacting to the news, Cllr Keith Prince said he was in close contact with borough commander Det Ch Supt Sue Williams about the violence.

He said: “I have already had a tentative meeting with the borough commander about this and we will sit down again to discuss what we can put in place.

“From September we will have 14 extra police officers and they will be looking at areas like these where we have anti-social behaviour.

“They will be real police in real crime hotspots.”

Redbridge police said the fight broke out between the group of men outside the popular Faces nightclub before the man was found with a puncture wound to his chest and cuts to his face outside Kwik Fit.

Cranbrook Road was closed for most of the morning as police carried out forensic examinations.

In January a middle-aged man was stabbed in the leg in nearby Frinton Mews, leading shopkeepers and residents to brand the area a “hotspot” for violent crime.

And in 2009 a man was left in a critical condition when he was shot in the chest in the same street.

Some people living around Cranbrook Road say they fear walking alone at night in the area because of drunken “toe-rags” spilling out of the bars and clubs.

Rebecca Newman, 85, who heard the fight from her home on nearby Gaysham Avenue said: “I am scared for my own family getting out of their cars on the driveway, it’s getting worse and worse.”

Asked if there were too many licensed premises in Gants Hill, Cllr Prince said: “It is something we will have to look at.”

No arrests have been made over the incident and police say they are keeping an “open mind”.