Police have launched a murder investigation after a 23-year-old man was fatally stabbed at a youth club in southwest London.

Officers were called to Minet Road in Brixton at 6.45pm on Thursday.

Although the victim was given first aid he died at the scene at around 7.30pm. London’s air and land ambulance services also attended.

His identity has not yet been made public but his next of kin have been informed.

On Friday morning, a crime scene remained in place in or close to the Marcus Lipton youth centre. No arrests have yet been made.

Rachel Venables, a reporter for LBC, wrote on Twitter: “One woman who lives in the nearby Loughborough estate tells me a gang ran in and attacked him yesterday evening.”

In a statement, the Metropolitan police said: “A number of detailed forensic and CCTV footage-related inquiries are in hand and police are appealing for information.

“Detectives are particularly keen to hear from those who were at the youth club – which was open at the time of the attack.”

A postmortem will be held in due course.

Pastor and community campaigner Lorraine Jones said she heard a fight had broken out at the youth club and the man was stabbed in the groin.

Jones, whose 20-year-old son Dwayne Simpson was stabbed to death in Brixton in 2014, added: “All I know was that there was a fight and a young man got stabbed. The police were called, they tried to do CPR with a defibrillator, the ambulance came and pronounced him dead.”

Jones, who lives nearby, said the youth club was one of only two in the area serving around 8,000 children. She added: “The club has been going for many, many years. They have done a huge amount of work, hundreds of thousands if not millions of hours with young people and they need help. They are under pressure right now. There should be maximum support for the workers to expand and strengthen what they are doing for young people.”

The incident is the latest in a string of violent incidents to occur in the capital this week. On Monday, 11 people were held on suspicion of murder after 22-year-old Bright Akinlele was stabbed outside a hotel in Euston.

On Wednesday, a 16-year-old boy was taken to hospital in a serious condition after he was shot during an altercation at Barking tube station.

Earlier this month, official figures revealed that fatal stabbings in England and Wales had reached their highest level since records began more than 70 years ago.

Between March 2017 and 2018, the homicide rate also rose by 15%.