A CYCLIST was hacked to death with a machete in front of horrified shoppers in the teatime rush-hour on Monday in an apparently random attack. Mark Andre Biggs, 39, was stabbed outside McDonald’s, in Camberwell Green, southeast London, by a man weilding a machete 12in to 18in long.

Mr Biggs was slashed in the right arm and abdomen by the busy Butterfly Walk shopping centre at about 5.15pm in front of dozens of commuters queuing for buses.

Mr Biggs is believed to have been cycling by, on his way home, when attacked. He lived with his wife only five minutes away on the Peabody Estate. He was taken to nearby Kings College Hospital on Denmark Hill but died soon after arrival.

The attacker fled through a shopping arcade. He is said to be a light-skinned black man, aged about 30, slim, and wearing a yellow T-shirt, dirty dark blue jeans and a grey-coloured baseball cap. A police manhunt immediately began.

Detective Inspector David Morgan, leading the murder hunt, said: “This appears to have happened without any altercation and at this stage we don’t know if the victim and culprit knew each other.

“We can’t say the culprit won’t strike again but we have no indication he will.”

Detectives are searching for the murder weapon and are asking local residents to check their gardens because they believe the attacker may have thrown the weapon away.

Mr Morgan added: “It may have been abandoned in the area and we are asking local people to check their gardens and if they come across anything that resembles the weapon to alert police immediately.”

Two bunches of flowers lay near bloodstains outside McDonald’s. A note on one read: “To Mark. RIP. I love you with all my heart. Wife Sylvia.”

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