A gang believed to be wearing medical-style face masks and gloves stabbed an NHS worker to death in an attack just days before his father’s funeral.

David Gomoh, 24, was set upon by a gang of four to five males moments after he left his home in east London, close to the NHS Nightingale field hospital at the Excel centre, on Sunday evening.

Police say the attack was unprovoked and against a wholly innocent victim by a gang that went out armed and looking for a target.

Gomoh’s family have been left suffering “unimaginable torment” and are due to bury his father on Wednesday after he died from a Covid-19 related illness.

Police said Gomoh was stabbed multiple times and suffered at least four knife wounds. The attack from start to finish lasted 10 seconds, during which time the gang spotted Gomoh, got out of a car and stabbed him repeatedly, then got back in the car and sped off.

Surgical-style masks and gloves were found close to the scene of the murder, and also close to where the car was dumped, the Guardian understands.

But detectives are bearing in mind the greater use of masks and gloves due to the coronavirus outbreak. They are keeping an open mind on a possible motive, though one theory being examined is that the gang was looking for revenge on anyone in that postcode.

Police said Gomoh’s mother and sister, who also work for the NHS, were “heartbroken”.

Gomoh, a marketing graduate from South Bank University in London, worked in NHS supplies and procurement and lived with his mother and sister.

Just before 10.25pm on Sunday evening he left home to go to a nearby shop. Police said he was on the phone speaking to a friend when the gang, driving a stolen silver Dodge Caliber, spotted him and rushed out of the vehicle with at least two knives.

The attack happened in Freemasons Road, near the junction with Kerry Close, in Canning Town.

The car was abandoned about half a mile away. It had been stolen in Dagenham 11 days earlier and its number plates had been cloned.

DI Tony Kirk of the Metropolitan police’s specialist crime command, who is leading the investigation, said. “David’s family are going through unimaginable torment. Within days his mother has seen the death of her husband and son; his sister has lost her brother and father, both are now heartbroken.

“David was a young man who had worked hard to put himself through university and, like his mother, worked hard for the community in the NHS. At this time we believe the only thing David did to be murdered was walk down a street. He was apparently approached by a group of men wearing masks and stabbed multiple times in a ferocious assault.

“I have no doubt this was a planned attack that singled out David because he happened to be in that area. David and his mother, who have done so much to help the community, now need the public to come forward and tell us what they know. If you have any information, please think of this young man and the suffering of his family and call us. If you don’t want to give your name, call Crimestoppers, but do make that call. David’s family deserve both answers and justice.”

Detectives are awaiting the results of a postmortem and examining CCTV footage. They have appealed for anyone who has dashcam footage or CCTV from the scenes where the murder happened or car was dumped to contact them.