Stab victim pleaded for his mother

7:27pm Friday 4th July 2008

The latest teenage victim of London's knife crime crisis pleaded for his mother as he lay dying in the street.

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 in Thornton Heath, south London.

Officers said they were hunting three black teenagers who ambushed Shakilus, known as Shaki to his 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.

They 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. Police have recovered two knives, one of which was described by a witness as 18 inches long.

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".

It came as three teenagers appeared in court in the north of the city accused of stabbing 16-year-old Ben Kinsella to death at the weekend.

Tunisian Hamouda Bessaad, 34, was stabbed to death in Old Kent Road on Monday, while Dee Willis, 28, died after a knife attack in Peckham the next day.

Meanwhile Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson gave details of a 75-man taskforce dedicated to targeting gang members. He said tackling knife crime was the force's "number one priority" and officers would continue the tough stop-and-search regime to flush out those carrying weapons.

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