An 18-year-old boy was stabbed to death in London last night, becoming the 21st teenager to die violently in the capital this year.

Frederick Moody died after being attacked in Guildford Road, Lambeth, South London.

Residents told The Times that they tried to keep the teenager alive as he lay on the ground no more than 200 yards from where he is believed to live with his family. They are believed to be from Ghana.

Sharon Smith, 23, a mother on maternity leave, said that she had cradled him in her arms while another woman held towels to a wound in his side.

Times Archive, 1956: Judge on race gang warfare

Summing up, his Lordship said this case sounded more like Chicago in the worst days of Prohibition than London in 1956

• No 'jungle in schoolroom'

• Call for banning 'flick' knives

Related Links

• Economic gloom could reverse crime trend

• Huge rise in credit card fraud online

Multimedia

• Victims of the London stabbings

“He was murmuring and his eyes were just rolling into the back of his head. We were just trying to keep him with us,” she said. The two women said they had stayed with the boy until an ambulance arrived, followed by police.

Miss Smith said that she and her boyfriend had run out of their house after hearing shouts and screams. They found Frederick lying on the pavement wearing a pair of dark jeans and a T-shirt.

A group of youths said that they had heard Frederick’s killers shout “leave him for dead” before leaving the scene. While they were waiting for the ambulance to arrive, a local doctor, Dr Balaz cycled by, stopped and gave CPR in an attempt to keep the boy alive.

Friends of the family said that Frederick was a student and had a younger sister.

“His mother is completely devastated and doesn’t know what to do with herself. How could something like this happen? He was a good boy. Now the Government really has to do something to stop this,” said a man who had visited the family home.

The attack took place close to a block of council apartments. Last night the road was cordoned off at both ends by police who brought sniffer dogs.

Large crowds of local youths had gathered at the scene, as police told local residents that they believed the killers had escaped on bicycles.

The latest London killing comes a week after four men were stabbed to death in the capital within a 16-hour period. During the past weeks knife crime has been catapulted to the fore-front of public concern.

Although the British Crime Survey reported yesterday that crime is falling, figures showed that 350 knife crimes are committed in England and Wales every day. That total does not include offences involving under 16s.

In the spate of killings last Thursday a 41-year-old man was the first to die, found dead early in the morning outside a disused pub in Tottenham, North London.

At 2.30pm a 19-year-old teenager was killed in a fight in Edmonton, North London, after suffering stab wounds to his neck and head.

Barely three hours later Adnan Patel, 20, was also stabbed to death, in Leyton, East London, also in a fight. One witness said he saw the men fighting with baseball bats, kitchen knives, and golf clubs.

Later that evening a fourth man, Yusufu Miiro, 20, was stabbed to death in front of his girlfriend, in Walthamstow, East London, by a man wearing a mask from the film, Scream.

At the beginning of July Scotland Yard said knife crime was now the force’s number one priority. Paul Stephenson, Deputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner, announced the creation of a 75-strong knife crime unit to target known gang members and their associates.

Last year the number of teenagers murdered in London was 26. A total of 17 were stabbed, eight were shot and one was beaten. The youngest was 14.

Times Recommends

• The bright side of this winter rain
• Story behind the picture: Snow Leopard, 2008
• Times Charity Appeal: The Place2Be