Brittain said the suspect, who wasn’t identified, was in custody awaiting questioning and added that police weren’t searching for anyone else in connection with the death.
“This is every parent’s worst nightmare, and I know the officers who responded this morning, along with our emergency service colleagues, are devastated at the victim’s death,” he said near the scene of the stabbing.
“This is an emotion I share and I know people across Croydon will be feeling the same,” he said.
A white forensic tent has been erected within a police cordon at the scene.
Stabbings involving young people aren’t uncommon in London, but it is relatively rare for such incidents to involve girls.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that he was “heartbroken” by the death and expressed sympathy with the girl’s family and local community.
The girl, who hasn’t been named, was a student at the Old Palace of John Whitgift School, a private girls’ school in Croydon.
The school expressed its shock at the “senseless and tragic death of our much-loved and valued friend and pupil”.
The Telegraph reported that witnesses said the 15-year-old girl was travelling to school in Croydon when a row broke out between the victim, her friends and other pupils from a local school.
The argument is said to have spilled out of the bus and on to the pavement outside a shopping centre, where the schoolgirl was attacked by a young man “wielding a sword-like knife” and “wearing all black” at around 8.30am on Wednesday, says the Telegraph
Relaying her friend’s account, she said: “He gave her the flowers and she threw them away. Her friends all dispersed when she went down. After that the boy apparently stabbed her, blood gushing out and the police put pressure on it. She died on the spot.”
- Additional reporting by NZ Herald
