A man who was followed down the street and beaten to death by teenagers in east London has been named as Zdeněk Makar, a 31-year-old Czech who lived in the area.



He was involved in an argument with one of the teenagers as he waited to be served in a takeaway in Poplar, police believe.

Scotland Yard has launched a murder investigation and detectives are appealing for witnesses after the victim was found close to All Saints Docklands light railway station by East India Dock Road in Poplar.

Makar was pronounced dead at the scene at 12.22am on Thursday, police said. A postmortem held on Friday gave the cause of death as traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage – a stroke caused by bleeding on the brain. Next of kin have been informed.

Police understand that Makar, who was dressed in a suit and tie, was involved in an altercation with a group of men inside Perfect Fried Chicken on East India Dock Road. He was then followed down the street and attacked.

A Met spokesperson said: “At this early stage, there is no evidence to suggest that this was a racially motivated attack.”

A worker at the chicken shop told the Evening Standard: “I don’t know what the argument was about but there was no pushing or shoving, no one threw a punch. They were swearing at each other but it was all over in about 10 seconds.”

The witness described how the teenager, who appeared to be aged 16-17, went outside to speak to his friends, one of whom came into the shop, put his arm around the victim and said: “You shouldn’t have spoken to him like that.”

The witness added: “They both took their food outside and that was it. Ten minutes later, we saw all the police and ambulance turn up.”

A second witness, a shopkeeper, told the Standard he went to the scene after seeing the emergency services. He saw a cyclist there with blood on his face after trying to give the victim mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, he said.

Witnesses should call police on 020 8345 3985 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

No arrests have been made.