just to show that us brits wont be outdone when it comes to random acts of stupidity and violence...
footlocker is a sports shop so no doubt life was ended over a pair of trainers
26 December 2011 Last updated at 19:31 Share this pageEmailPrint
Oxford Street stabbing: Teen dies near Bond Street TubeEmergency vehicles have blocked Oxford Street, close to the scene of the stabbing
An 18-year-old has been stabbed to death on one of London's busiest shopping streets.
The man died outside the Foot Locker sports shop on Oxford Street, near the junction with Stratford Place.
Police said they were called to the scene at about 13:45 GMT. Nine people were arrested and part of the street, near Bond Street Tube, was closed off.
Det Ch Insp Mark Dunne said there appeared to have been two groups of young people "opposing each other".
Mr Dunne, of the Metropolitan Police's homicide command, told journalists there was no suggestion the incident was gang related, but he was "not going to discount it".
He said it appeared a weapon was involved, which "may well have been a knife", but he said he could not yet confirm this.
"A number of weapons have been recovered from that scene, whether I have got the murder weapon I don't know.
"There's an assortment of items but no guns," he said.
He said it was still not clear whether the incident had happened inside or just outside the Foot Locker store.
Police were still trying to work out exactly what had happened, he said.
"This is probably the busiest place in the UK right now, on the busiest shopping day, so it's been difficult for us to piece together what has happened."
He urged witnesses to come forward.
Several shops in the area were forced to shut early because they were inside the police cordon.
An employee at the nearby Disney Store said the company's outlet was "being quite badly affected" and was "unlikely to open again today".
Police also said another stabbing took place on Monday close to the junction of Oxford Street and Regent Street.
They said a man, thought to be in his 20s, was stabbed at 18:20. He had stab wounds in the legs and had been taken to hospital. His condition is not thought to be life-threatening.
Police said it was "too early to say" whether the two stabbings were connected.
Previous attack
Earlier this year, two teenagers were stabbed in the same area, outside a branch of clothing retailer H&M near Bond Street Tube station.
Both survived the attack, which followed a fight one afternoon in August.
A 22-year-old man, Steven Bigby, was stabbed to death on another section of Oxford Street in May 2008, soon after leaving a McDonald's restaurant.
Another man, aged 19, was convicted of his manslaughter.
