First picture of teenager, 17, stabbed to death on night of New Year's Eve violence in London

Mother of Kyall Parnell pays tribute to 'amazing son' killed on one of the worst ever days for knife crime in London ++++ Four fatal stabbings in London on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day
Kyall Parnell, 17, was attacked on his way to a New Year’s Eve party and died after being chased through traffic in Tulse Hill
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This the first picture of a teenager stabbed to death in London on New Year’s Eve in one of the worst ever days for knife crime in London.

Kyall Parnell, 17, was attacked in front of horrified revellers on his way to a New Year’s Eve party and died after being chased through traffic in Tulse Hill, south London.

He suffered a single stab wound and died at the scene 22 minutes before midnight - one of four young men stabbed to death in just 15 hours.

Today his mother Katrina paid tribute to her “amazing” son, who had recently enrolled on a bricklaying apprenticeship.

She said: “He was loved. This shouldn’t have happened. These boys need to stop doing what they’re doing.

Police at the scene of the fatal stabbing in Tulse Hill

“My boy was amazing, he was smart. He had potential to go places. They would be calling me and telling me he was the smartest boy in the class.

Police at the scene in Islington where a man was stabbed to death
Nigel Howard

“He needed to be doing active things. He was good boy. These young boys need to stop and think, they need to look after each other. This is someone’s life.”

Kyall’s grandmother Maida Grant, 67, also called to an end for the bloodshed.

Speaking from her home, half a mile from where her grandson died, she told the Standard: “This is happening too much. Every day if there is an argument, a knife is always involved. If they don’t get a response they want, they still draw a knife. “It’s as if life is cheap and they don’t think of the consequences.”

Ms Grant added: “His mother was the last person that he spoke to. He told her he was going to a party. He was loving, he always liked hugs. Christmas Eve was the last time I saw him.

The teenager, from Streatham, a former Dunraven school pupil, was attacked after a fight broke out on a 68 bus near Tulse Hill station just before 10.45pm.

Witnesses described how the teenager had tried to flee a gang of attackers by running through oncoming traffic on the busy one-way system on Norwood Road.

One said: “They ran round the side of the bus. There were about six or seven of them chasing the boy, the cars were zigzagging around them.

“They were not giving up. He tried to cross the road and it didn’t work so he went back to the bus stop.

“I looked back and someone was lying down. A girl was shaking the boy and screaming and a boy was standing next to them.”

The killing brought the total number of teenagers violently killed in London last year to 26. Twenty of those were stabbed.

Following the spate of New Year violence, which also saw fatal stabbings in Enfield, West Ham and Islington, Deputy Met Commissioner Craig Mackey issued a “call to action” to Londoners to help tackle knife crime.

Police were still questioning a 19-year-old man today on suspicion of murder following the fatal stabbing of a 20-year-old in Islington at a house party in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

A second 20-year-old man, who was also stabbed during the incident, remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital.

Friends of a 20-year-old stabbed to death in West Ham laid flowers close to where he was killed today. Friend Whitney Bryan, 31, said: “You would never see him sad even when we were kids.”

Detectives investigating the murder of an 18-year-old stabbed at a friend’s flat in Enfield on New Year’s Eve have charged three young men.

Two have been charged with possession of an offensive weapon and an 18-year-old has been charged with possession of a firearm.

One man has been bailed and another remains under arrest in hospital.

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