A teenage gang member who stabbed a rival at Stratford station sobbed as he was jailed for four and a half years.

The boy aged 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, armed himself with a kitchen knife before the attack on a member of another gang.

CCTV footage from last September’s attack showed the boy chasing his victim through the busy station at midday. He sliced his target’s chin before the victim “turned the tables” and chased the 16-year-old off with a baseball bat.

He was tracked down and arrested 10 days later, but claimed his actions were only “excessive self-defence”. Sentencing the boy, Judge David Radford told him: “You attacked [the victim] with a long-handled kitchen knife — he was frightened but he was not seriously injured and he resisted what was happening and made his escape, in fact, he turned the tables on you.

“All of this flowed from the fact that you were a member of a gang who were in a state of animosity with his gang.

“The citizens of this city can’t be made to be witnesses to an attack of the nature you had formed the intent to carry out. It has been repeatedly made clear that those who arm themselves with knives, who are affiliated with gangs, who go out with the possibility of using them on rival gang members, will be dealt with by a sentence of immediate custody.”

The boy wiped away tears as his sentence was read out at Snaresbrook crown court and he was told he would serve the full sentence in custody.

He was cleared of one charge of attempted murder and an alternative count of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm but was convicted by a jury of a lesser charge of attempted wounding. He was also convicted of possession of an offensive weapon after a trial in February.

The boy’s defence barrister said he had been attacked seven times by members of rival gangs since being detained in a young offenders’ institution.