Man Stabbed To Death In Oxford Streethttp://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/1613774710:13pm UK, Monday December 26, 2011
A teenage boy has been stabbed to death on one of the busiest shopping streets in Britain. Amateur video footage given to Sky News by a viewer show the scene as hundreds of people apparently stand around watching as police and paramedics try to save the victim's life. The 18-year-old boy was attacked at around 1.45pm when the street was packed with thousands people taking advantage of the Boxing Day sales.
The dramatic footage showed medical staff wearing blue plastic gloves trying to revive the teenager by pressing down on his chest as he lay on the pavement. Shouts of "I'm just trying to help him" could be heard as police pushed back youths to allow paramedics to treat the victim. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A second stabbing took place close to the junction of Oxford Street and Regent Street. Three people have been arrested but police were unable to say whether the two incidents were connected. The first attack happened inside the Foot Locker sports shoes store on Oxford Street, sources said.
The Metropolitan Police said 10 arrests were made in connection with the incident, but that enquiries were continuing. Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Mark Dunne, from the Metropolitan Police's Homicide Command, said the murder had taken place at the "busiest place in the United Kingdom on the busiest shopping day".
He said it was still not clear whether the incident had happened inside or just outside the Foot Locker store. He said: "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. "My officers and many other officers from the West End are looking to get as many witnesses as we possibly can and to get a full account of exactly why this happened."
Mr Dunne said it seemed that there had been a confrontation between two groups of youngsters and confirmed that "a number of people" had been arrested.
Inspector Bruce Middlemiss, the duty officer for Westminster Police, said in a statement at the second crime scene: "This is the second stabbing incident we have had on Oxford Street. "There is a 21-year-old male that has been involved who has a single stab wound to the thigh area.
"At the moment he is stable as far as we can tell. There were three suspects involved who have all run up Regent Street." Asked whether the two incidents which took place today on Oxford Street were linked, Mr Middlemiss said: "There's nothing firm, however they are a similar sort of circumstances, youths possibly from the same south London area."
A security guard who works in the Tezenis clothing shop at the junction between Oxford Street and Regent Street where the second stabbing took place, said he saw the injured victim taken away by ambulance. Shuja Butt, 24, said: "I heard noise in the street and I looked out and saw police. "About six or seven minutes later an ambulance arrived and they put a black guy on a stretcher. He looked like he was in his 20s.
"I saw blood on his leg but I'm not sure if it was the left leg or the right. It was chaotic." Many shops in the West End closed after the attack, after reporting £15m of sales in the first three hours of the Boxing Day sales.
