London, Nov 25 (PTI) Scotland Yard officers launched a murder investigation on Thursday following the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old British Sikh teenager on a west London street.

The victim was named locally as Ashmeet Singh.

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The Metropolitan Police said they were called to Raleigh Road in Southall on Wednesday night to reports of a stabbing and attended along with paramedics from London Ambulance Service (LAS).

“Despite the efforts of emergency services, he died at the scene a short time later. His next of kin have been informed; formal identification awaits,” the Met Police said.

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“Homicide detectives from Specialist Crime have been informed. There have been no arrests. Enquiries are ongoing,” they said, appealing for anyone with information related to the murder to come forward.

Social media footage shows police officers battling in vain to save the victim's life in a front garden. According to the ‘Evening Standard', Singh's friends fear the British Sikh boy was attacked for a fake Gucci bag he always carried with him.

“Police came to check my CCTV and said there had been a stabbing, I couldn't believe it,” a local shopkeeper was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

“I knew him, he was a good guy. His friends are all saying he was stabbed over this Gucci bag, it wasn't even real. It's terrible. I wish I had heard something or he had run to me. I would have pulled down the shutters to keep him safe – I had the staff to handle it,” he said.

According to locals, Singh did part-time jobs to care for his disabled mother, who lives above a shop close to where her son was killed. His stabbing marks the 28th teenage killing on the streets of London this year.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)