THE latest teenage victim of London's knife crime crisis pleaded for his mother as he lay dying in the street, it emerged yesterday.
One witness cradled gravely-wounded 16-year-old Shakilus Townsend in her arms as he said: "I don't want to die."
Police said he was attacked by a masked gang armed with knives and baseball bat on Thursday in south London.
Officers said they we
re hunting three black teenagers who ambushed Shakilus, known as Shaki to friends, stabbing him in the chest and beating him around the head. The youths had pulled up their hoods and covered their faces in bandanas for the planned attack.
Police also want to trace a black girl, aged in her mid-teens and wearing a floral dress, who stood back with up to eight others and watched the sickening attack.
Two knives, one of which was described by a witness as 18 inches long, were recovered
The death brings the toll of teenagers killed in knife attacks in the capital this year to 18.
The detective leading the investigation said it was "another senseless incident in which a young life has been taken away by a knife".
Shakilus died at St George's Hospital, Tooting, south London, just after midnight yesterday after the attack in Beulah Crescent.
The full article contains 222 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
