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.
What happened
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’.
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.