Parents of teenage children are said to be the most worried group after the murder of Harry Pitman on New Year's Eve.

Harry, 16, from Tottenham, was stabbed to death in Primrose Hill park as he waited to watch London's New Year fireworks with friends.

Parents from the area were among those gathered at a safer neighbourhood police meeting in Swiss Cottage Community Centre on January 4.

One parent said she hadn't slept much since the murder and felt "very frustrated".

She said: "My son knows now he won't to go to the park, but his friends don't know that and other people don't know that, and the boys letting fireworks off on the hill don't know what happened and they don't know Primrose Hill is not safe."

Primrose Hill councillor Matt Cooper told the meeting: "The most worried group in Primrose Hill right now are parents. 

"So many times people have said 'I don't know if my teenage son can go out right now'. What would you say?"

Inspector Stevie Bull, a Metropolitan Police officer who heads the Camden team, was asked what she advised her own children.

She said the question was "difficult to answer", and that she told her own children to "stick with their friends and keep their phones on them".

She added: "I don't have magic fairy dust and I can't predict in the future where things are going to happen.

"If you are worried as a parent you can look for changes of behaviour, it's about having that knowledge and empowering yourself."

Also present was Jason Allen, director of Mary's Charity, which works with young people at risk of violent crime.

He said: "Kids are getting stabbed left right and centre, kids getting robbed left right and centre and in the majority of murders - we know of at least six - the intention was to not murder. 

"They don't understand the consequence (of using knives) nowadays when they come into our programmes.

"Our advice to parents is you need to know what's going on in your child's life."

He said parents should should ask why they are dressing a certain way, what music they are listening to, where they are hanging out?

"That will give you a broader understanding," he added. 

"It can be difficult for some parents, but a lot of us have children here.

"It's that harsh reality, at Mary's, people will struggle to hear the truth of what's happening but we need to have realistic conversations with parents so then the information is with them.

"They need to know what's going on as much as they can do in their child's life to safeguard them.

"That's what we tell all parents."