A 16-year-old boy was ambushed as he left a school in east London and stabbed to death on Friday in a “senseless attack”.
The pupil at Kelmscott school, Walthamstow, was met outside by his attackers who were “waiting for him”, an eyewitness said. He tried to escape but was stabbed a short distance away outside an auto parts store as other pupils watched.
Police went to the scene but, despite the efforts of emergency services, he died in the street at 4.39pm on Friday.
The school’s headteacher, Sam Jones, said in a statement that the attack marked the “darkest of days” for the community.
“A Kelmscott student was tragically killed in a senseless knife attack,” he said.
“Kelmscott is a large and tight-knit family and this loss will be felt for a long time to come.
“Hold those that you love close this evening. I know we will come together as a community and support one another through this.”
Ch Supt Simon Crick, who leads the north-east command at the Metropolitan police, said he was “totally devastated by the loss of a young man’s life”.
No arrests have been made and road closures and cordons remain in place around the scene.
The attack, which happened just after the end of the school day, has shocked those who witnessed it.
One business owner, who asked not to be named, said he saw one of the assailants get out of a white Hyundai shortly before the attack.
Another added: “He was a year 11 kid. There were three other kids older than him. They were waiting for him.
“They chased him. He ran and when he got to the tyre shop they stabbed him three times in the stomach and he bled to death.”
The man said that gang-related violence had become a common occurrence in Walthamstow, claiming it had gone from “bad to worse”.
The victim was the second 16-year-old killed in the area in recent years – Amaan Shakoor was shot in the head near Kelmscott school in April 2018.
The family of Amaan, whose killer has never been found, offered a £50,000 reward for information earlier this year.
According to figures released by the Office for National Statistics there were 45,000 knife crimes in England and Wales in the year ending March 2022 – 9% higher than the previous year.
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