Boy, 17, defended girl from group of boys half an hour before he was stabbed to death

This is the shocking moment a teenage boy was stabbed to death in front of horrified diners half an hour after he was said to have defended a girl from a group of boys.

The 17-year-old victim, named by family members as Youssef Karim Hasan Al-Bayjani, was attacked by a gang at 2pm on busy Edgware Road yesterday lunchtime.

The killing is the 105th of the year in London, and he is the seventh person to be murdered in London in just nine days.

Sixth form student Mr Hasan Al-Bayjani, who was studying business at the City of Westminster College was found on the street suffering with stab injuries.

CCTV from a KFC diner showed a fight outside as shocked customers queued for their lunch. 

It appeared to show a young man lunge at several hooded thugs before being set on on the pavement outside. 

The victim was taken to hospital where he died five-and-a-half hours later. 

A photograph taken in the aftermath of the attack showed the victim being treated at the scene. 

A friend who left flowers at the scene said: ‘He had a really good heart.

‘On the day some boys were trying to mess with me, he stopped them and that was just about half an hour before it happened.

‘We’re just praying that this has to stop.

‘No-one can really grieve because you just have to pretend it hasn’t happened.’

A relative, who also asked not to be named, said: ‘He was studying business and wanted to go to uni.

‘He’s an angel and he’s in heaven now, a better place than here.’

The Evening Standard reports that the boy’s family visited the scene this morning, and revealed the teenager’s dying words were ‘Oh God’ in Arabic. 

He had a brother and sister and lived nearby with his Kurdish mother. 

A witness who saw the attack from Domino’s Pizza next door told the Standard that the teenage victim’s brother lay over him to try to protect him as he lay bleeding.

He said: ‘It just looked like a fight at first, but then I saw they had knives. His brother was shouting telling people to get away. 

He was shouting ‘Get off, get off, he’s my brother’ and then the paramedics were there very quickly.’

A police cordon is still in place outside a row of shops where the attack took place.

Mourners, some weeping at the edge of the police cordon, left flowers.

 Witnesses said a group of around 40 people, many thought to be students from a nearby college, gathered as paramedics tried to save the boy.

A market trader, who did not want to be named, said: ‘I saw him on the floor and the ambulance came.

‘There were a lot of people around, students from the college.

‘I saw him move twice, but after that he didn’t move again.’

DCI Andy Partridge, from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said: ‘This awful attack took place in broad daylight in a busy part of central London.

‘A teenager with his whole life ahead of him has been taken away from his family who have been left heartbroken.

‘We know that lots of people were in the area at the time and may well have seen what unfolded.

‘We need them to do the right thing and get in touch right away with what they saw along with any images or moving footage captured before, during or after the attack.’