Killed over a 'dirty look'

The 16-year-old - named locally as Naz - became the 27th teenager to be murdered in London this year.

The toll of teenage killings is the highest ever in the capital and the violence is being blamed on rising gang activity.

Police said the victim was travelling with his best friend to Upper Street in Islington to go to the sales yesterday when a fight broke out on the No 73 bus, spilling onto the pavement crowded with lunchtime shoppers.

Passers-by watched in horror as the pair were stabbed in daylight at a bus stop and left for dead.

Naz, whose birthday is on New Year's Day, died at the scene. His friend - known to locals as Eron - was taken to a north London hospital where his condition is not life-threatening.

Friends of the victims said the stabbings occurred after a member of a Hackney gang known as the Shakespeare gang was insulted over an apparent "dirty look". However, they said Naz was not connected to a gang.

The teenager had been a pupil at St Aloysius Roman Catholic school in Highgate - the same school attended by 14-year-old Martin Dinnegan who was stabbed to death in Islington in June - before he moved to the highly respected St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College in North Kensington to do his A-levels.

A Police Community Support Officer patrolling the popular shopping street who, with a colleague, found the teenager lying semi-conscious, said: "There was a fight on the bus which spilled out on to the pavement. That is where they were stabbed.

"It is shocking. You wake up in the morning, pull your socks on and then in a second your life is over - that is it."

Another witness said the teenager's mother had come down to the scene of her son's stabbing about an hour after the attack. "She was just screaming and crying, it was terrible," he said.

Paramedics spent more than an hour trying to save the teenager and an air ambulance was called but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mike Bereza, 23, who works as a pharmacist in Upper Street, was on a bus which pulled up alongside the stabbed teenagers moments after the attack.

He said: "I could see a young black guy wearing sports gear unconscious. Two police officers and two PCSOs were with him, one was cradling his head in her lap. He had his hand covering his left side. The police officer was trying to get his attention. Then more police cars turned up."

Emily, 22, an assistant in nearby Stone clothes shop, witnessed the aftermath. She said: "There were two guys lying on the floor who had been stabbed. They looked like they were in a lot of pain."

A family friend, who asked not to be named, said the murdered teenager was a "good boy who would never hurt anyone".

She said: "I have known Naz since he was a toddler. When boys get murdered sometimes you hear bad things about them but you would never hear anything bad about Naz. He was loved by the community, he was a peacemaker. He was a good family boy."

Speaking outside the terrace Victorian family home in Highbury, his older brother said: "He was a very good boy, loved by everyone.

"He was doing his A-levels and never in trouble. We are just shocked and saddened by this. We can't really speak about it now."

An 18-year-old man was arrested in the area following the lunchtime attack. He remains in custody in a north London police station.