Victim named locally as Sami Sidhom, 18, was attacked by four men, according to a witness

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Police are investigating another fatal stabbing in the capital after the death of a teenager in east London.



Officers, paramedics and London’s air ambulance were called to a street in Forest Gate at about 10.50pm on Monday.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene just before 11.30pm. He was named locally as Sami Sidhom, 18.

Police said a formal identification and postmortem had yet to be arranged and did not name the victim.

Tariq Bhugeloo, a neighbour who came to lay flowers at the scene, said the teenager was humble and never involved in any trouble.

“Sami was always outside polishing his car – a new black Audi A4. His grandfather passed away recently, so with the inheritance he bought this car. I saw him on Saturday and joked with him that he’d missed a spot. He was a completely innocent guy,” he said.

“I didn’t hear the scream because I’m at the back of the house, but my brother did and went out with towels to help stop the blood. There was just so much.”

A childhood friend of Sidhom, believed to have been studying at Queen Mary University of London, described him as “a good guy” who had never been involved in crime.

A woman who lives on the street where the incident took place said she was woken by a scream.

“I looked down and saw four men attacking someone on the ground. I shouted ‘get off him’ out of the window to try to make them stop, and they jumped into two different cars and sped off,” she said.

“The boy on the ground was screaming, but by the time I got to him, he had run down the street, probably 100 yards, and he collapsed on the ground. He was still conscious, but he was losing blood quickly. I used my child’s towel to try and stem the flow. It’s still there now.”

Seyi Akiwowo, a councillor for Forest Gate North, tweeted: “Some more devastating news, a young person has been fatally stabbed in Forest Gate. My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends.”



Seyi Akiwowo (@seyiakiwowo) I've redrafted this tweet 4 times and there are just no words

I'm angry, my heart aches and I don't know what we do now.

I want to scream at our young people "we love you, pls stop".

I want to yell at politicians! "You're not doing enough!"

A cordon is in place at the scene. No arrests have been made.

The killing follows the fatal stabbings of two people in separate domestic incidents in London on Sunday.

The latest incident has not yet been classified as a suspected murder, but the Metropolitan police are already investigating more than 55 suspected murders this year. There have been 11 teenagers killed in the capital in 2018, including three earlier this month.

Tanesha Melbourne-Blake, 17, was shot dead on a residential street on Easter Monday. On the same evening, Amaan Shakoor, 16, became the youngest murder victim of the year so far when he was shot in Walthamstow. Israel Ogunsola, 18, was stabbed to death in Hackney days later.

Amber Rudd, the home secretary, has launched a serious violence strategy to clamp down on violent crime, which has been rising since 2014.