Woolwich: Murder probe after teenage boy stabbed to death

A murder investigation has begun after a teenage boy was stabbed to death in south-east London.

The Metropolitan Police said officers and emergency services had been called to Eglinton Road in Woolwich just after 18:30 BST on Sunday.

Police said the boy, whose age has not yet been given, had been found with a stab injury and died at the scene. Detectives are yet to make any arrests.

One witness said she had heard the boy say “don’t let me die” as he lay injured on the ground.

The witness, a 43-year-old woman who has lived in the area for 14 years and did not wish to be named, said she had tried to save the schoolboy.

“I was upstairs in my bedroom, I had my nightshirt on, I heard screaming from across the road saying ‘someone’s been stabbed, someone’s been stabbed’,” she said.

“So, I grabbed a sheet, I had no shoes or socks on or anything, and I just literally run to just near where the tent is, and there was someone laying face down on the floor.”

She described seeing a “massive pool of blood” after his leg moved and the witness also said she saw a head wound.

“I just stemmed the flow of blood until the paramedics and that got here,” she added.

“He was going to me ‘I’m 15, I’m 15, don’t let me die’ and I said to him ‘you’re not going to die, mate’.”

Another neighbour told BBC London she had picked up the boy’s phone after it rang and she was able to get a friend to come to his side.

“I was back and forth with the boy on the floor and just trying to comfort him – he was saying ‘I am 15’ and ‘to call my mum’,” the witness said.

“People need to come together and not just say ‘we need to do this and that’.

“We need to do it not just when the crime happens but to do something to prevent it from happening.”

A crime scene remains in place in and around the Eglinton Road area which is near Woolwich Common.

The Met said the boy’s next of kin had been informed.

The force has appealed for witnesses.

Additional reporting by PA Media.