A gifted private schoolboy who dreamed of being a heart surgeon has become the latest victim of the UK’s knife crime epidemic.
Yousef Makki, 17, from Burnage, Manchester, died just hours after Jodie Chesney, also 17, was stabbed to death in an "unprovoked attack" in her local park on the outskirts of London, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The scale of the crisis prompted Sajid Javid, the home secretary, to call a meeting with police chiefs this week as he warned such senseless violence could not go on.
The bright A-level student was found slumped against a tree in the affluent Manchester suburb of Hale Barns. The street is lined with sprawling detached homes worth upwards of £800,000.
He was rushed to hospital at around 6:45pm on Saturday but died later. Two 17-year-old boys were arrested on suspicion of murder. Two mountain bikes found at the scene were seized by police.
Yousef lived with his mother Deborah, 54, and 15-year-old brother Mazen in a modest terrace around eight miles away. His father Ghaleb is thought to be a Lebanese migrant.
He is understood to have won a scholarship to the city’s exclusive Manchester Grammar School, the UK’s largest independent day school for boys, which commands annual fees of more than £12,500.
A new analysis of NHS data suggests there has been a 93 percent rise in the number of children being treated for wounds caused by knives or other sharp objects in the last five years.
