Friends of murdered 16-year-old Shakilus Townsend have posted pictures on the internet showing him wielding a knife and posing with a gun.

In an indication of his gang connections, the teenager was described as a ‘fallen soldier’ and there were vows to avenge his killing.

The images were released as a man and four teenagers – including a girl – were arrested over the murder.

Shakilus Townsend poses with a knife and a gun in pictures friends posted on an internet networking site created to 'honour' the 'fallen soldier'

Detectives believe Shakilus could have been lured to his death in a honeytrap operation by a teenage girl who exchanged text messages with him arranging to meet.

His killers, their faces masked with bandanas, lay in wait and set upon him, stabbing, punching, kicking and hitting him with a baseball bat.

Police have described the murder as ‘clearly planned and targeted’.

Shakilus is the 18th teenage murder victim in London so far this year and the 33rd in Britain.

The attack took place in daylight on Thursday afternoon at an entrance to a block of flats in Thornton Heath, South London.

Mother- of-four Sharon Simpson, who lives near the scene, chased off his attackers and desperately tried to save him as Shakilus cried out for his mother.

He was taken to hospital but died of his injuries on Friday morning.

A friend of Shakilus who paid tribute to him on the networking site Bebo issued a warning to the girl who lured him to his death.

Calling himself YungahJKid, he wrote: ‘REMEMBER U SET UP SHAK YOU BITCH. AND HE LUVED YOOOOH. YOU IZ F****D!’

The 16-year-old makes what is thought to be a gang sign

In a terrifying reflection of how knife and gun crime has gripped Britain’s young communities, he also advises that you should always carry a weapon with you, writing: ‘RIDE WIV A WEAPON, NEVA FIST FIGHT.’

Pictures on the website show Shakilus, from Deptford, brandishing the knife and gun as well as making gangstyle gestures with his hands.

A 16-year-old girl was among four teenagers arrested in connection with the murder over the weekend. She and the boys, aged 16, 17 and 18, are being held in custody at various South London police stations.

A 22-year-old man is also being held. One of suspects was arrested at 9pm on Saturday and the rest were detained yesterday morning.

Floral tributes and cards have been left at the blood-stained scene where Shakilus died.

His parents Nicola and Derek, who are separated, and other relatives have visited the scene.

His stepmother, who would not be named, has called for violent teenage criminals to be sent to Iraq.

She said: ‘There’s no punishment and that’s why the children do what they do.

‘We as parents are very angry because nothing is being done and every single day we’re burying a child. When these youths commit these crimes they must be sent to Iraq.’

She claimed the 75 extra Metropolitan officers deployed to tackle knife crime were merely ‘a drop in the ocean’.

There were a string of stabbings across the country over the weekend.

A man in his 20s was in a serious but stable condition after being attacked as he stood at a bus stop in Putney Heath, South West London at 5am yesterday.

On Saturday, two security guards were stabbed as they tried to stop shoplifters fleeing from the Nike Town store on Oxford Street in central London at about 7pm.

A female security guard was punched in the face in the scuffle.

A 19-year-old man was recovering in hospital after he was stabbed in the stomach on a housing estate in Wallasey, Merseyside, on Friday night.

Another 19-year-old was in a critical condition after being involved in a suspected stabbing in Sheffield at around 2.30am on Saturday.

In Southend-on-Sea, a man aged 25 was stabbed in the face by two youths while he waited in a taxi queue at 4am on Saturday.

He received treatment to cuts to his lips and ear.

And in Wolverhampton, an 18-yearold youth suffered several stab wounds yesterday during a fight involving more than ten men in a car park.