The victim was chased by a gang wearing balaclavas and armed with what looked like machetes or large knives who stabbed him multiple times and left him sprawled on the bonnet of a car in Ingrave Street, Battersea.

Police working at the scene in Battersea (Picture: Maisie Bishop)

Neighbours told how they were woken at 1.25am on Sunday by the boy’s screams of “help me, I’m dying”. 

He was rushed to a south London hospital by paramedics where he was pronounced dead around 90 minutes later.

A 45-year-old neighbour said: “There were about six of them, they jumped out of the car and started chasing him immediately. He was on his bike but they caught up with him and stabbed him.

“Someone shouted ‘police are coming’ which stopped the others from finishing him off and they got in the car and sped off.”

Forensic teams sweeping the area have removed the victim’s bicycle and a blood-soaked car from the scene for further testing.

Anyone with information is asked to call the incident room at Lewisham via 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

He is the fourth teenager to be murdered in London in this month alone, and the eighth in 2017.

Jordan Wright from Catford and Abdullahi Tarabi, from Northolt, both 19, were both chased and fatally stabbed close to their homes earlier this month.

Boxer Karim Samms, 16, was shot dead in a drive-by attack in North Greenwich on April 7.