Oxford Street stabbings: Fourteen quizzed over attacks

Officers are to quiz 11 of those held over the murder of an 18-year-old man near the Foot Locker store on Oxford Street at 13:45 GMT on Monday.

The victim died at the scene near the junction with Stratford Place, BBC news reports.

Less than five hours later, near Oxford Circus, a man aged 21 was stabbed in the thigh. Three people have been arrested.

Police said it was too early to confirm whether or not the two incidents were connected.

However, Insp Bruce Middlemiss, the duty officer for police in Westminster, said: "They are a similar sort of circumstances, youths, possibly from the same south London area."

'Assortment' of weapons

The first stabbing happened at the height of what is traditionally the busiest shopping day on Oxford Street.

A post-mortem examination of the victim is due to take place later and his next-of-kin have been informed, but his identity has not been released.

Mim Shaikh, who was friends with the victim, said: "I lived in the same block as him and we went to the same high school. We'd go down to play football together.

"When I'd see him in the street, he'd give me a cheeky grin and a nod."

Det Ch Insp Mark Dunne said there appeared to have been two groups of young people "opposing each other" prior to the fatal stabbing.

He added: "A number of weapons have been recovered from that scene. Whether I have got the murder weapon I don't know.

Police said they hoped to have the area open to the public on Tuesday morning

"There's an assortment of items but no guns.

"This is probably the busiest place in the United Kingdom right now on the busiest shopping day so it's been difficult for us to piece together what has happened and clear this area to do the job we are paid to do and work out a sequence of events here.

"The flipside of that is we have probably more witnesses than we would normally have and I'm very much looking forward to them coming and speaking to us."

The area, close to Bond Street Tube, was closed between Duke Street and New Bond Street and shops within the cordon were forced to close.

Police said they hope to have the area reopened by 09:00 Tuesday.

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