Schoolgirl, 15, stabbed to death with machete was ‘trying to protect her friend’ | UK News

A teenage girl who was stabbed to death in south London was trying to protect her friend from her knife-wielding ex-boyfriend, it has been claimed.

Witnesses said a boy tried to give his ex flowers and a love note on the number 60 bus, before chasing her with a machete.

She was returning a bag of items after they separated recently, but a row broke out and he raced after her at a bus stop, according to The Sun.

The boy is said to have pulled out a foot-long knife and stabbed the girl after she leapt to her friend’s defence.

A mum-of-two bus passenger named Bridget said: ‘Everybody was panicked. Two bus drivers and a lady were trying to help the girl.

‘She had been stabbed in the neck and chest. ‘It seems like there was a bunch of friends then this happened.’

Security worker Victor Asare added: ‘A lot of people came, everyone came off the bus.

‘(The suspect) ran. Everybody was crying and screaming. The girl was on the floor.

‘We tried to catch him and a lot of people tried to save the girl. I was so shocked, I was shaken. It’s somebody’s daughter.

‘I finished work but couldn’t sleep so came back. I wanted to see if the girl was OK.’

He said the girl, who was in a green blazer, looked as if she ‘didn’t want the boy to come closer’ before he stabbed her with a knife ‘black, thin and about a foot long’.

The girl was named locally as Eliyanna.

Tributes were paid to the schoolgirl who was described as ‘very comedic’ with a ‘bright future’.

One of the cards left near the attack yesterday read: ‘Sorry we live in this crazy world, this makes no sense. Fly high up there, my mummy will look after you. RIP beautiful, forever young, taken too soon.’

Her family rushed to the scene in Croydon, South London, but she died 50 minutes after the 8.30am stabbing.

The suspect fled to New Addington five miles away where he was arrested on a tram.

The girl was in her GCSE year at Old Palace of John Whitgift, a £19,000-a-year private school.

The school said: ‘We are deeply shocked by the senseless and tragic death of our much-loved and valued friend and pupil.

‘It will take some time for the Old Palace community to come to terms with this terrible news, and we will offer support to our pupils as we try to do so.

‘Above all, we send our love and deepest sympathies to the girl’s family at this unimaginably ¬distressing time.’

Local youth worker Anthony King, who runs a crime reduction organisation in Croydon, said the girl – who was in her GCSE year – ‘had a bright future ahead of her’.

He described her as an ‘absolutely incredible young lady’ and told of how others said she was ‘jovial, very comedic’.

He told BBC Radio London he met with the girl’s friends and family following the attack.

He said: ‘This is the fourth or fifth time that I’ve had to look a parent in the eye and tell them their child has died. It’s the worst day of my life and I can’t imagine what that feeling is like [for them].

‘The noises and screams I heard this morning will sit in my spirit indefinitely. Keep the family in your prayers and thoughts.’

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: ‘The senseless murder of a 15-year-old girl on her way to school is impossible to comprehend.

‘It was moving and humbling to meet many members of the exceptional Croydon community who have come together in support of a family now dealing with the most unimaginable grief.’

The 17-year-old boy has been held in custody overnight with an update from police expected today.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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