Mourners attended a service yesterday for the murdered London schoolboy Damilola Taylor as police made fresh appeals in the search for his killers. Within hours, a 13-year-old boy was stabbed in the street in an attack in Hackney Wick in north-east London. The boy and his 13-year-old friend were approached by two 16-year-olds as they walked along Waterden Road in the early afternoon. The two black youths approached the younger boys and searched them, stealing a mobile phone and a small quantity of cash from one boy. A member of the public intervened and led the victims away. But the attackers returned and one of them stabbed the second 13-year-old. Earlier, police said earlier vital witnesses to the murder of Damilola Taylor in Peckham, south London, could include a group of six to 10 boys, aged about 14. Damilola was left to bleed to death after he was stabbed in the leg last Monday. At a service in Peckham Methodist Church, the Rev Wesley Daniel told the congregation, including the local Labour MP, Ms Harriet Harman, that the murder had left many in the community living "filled with fear and anxiety". Three people - two boys aged 12 and 13 and a 39-year-old woman - were released yesterday on police bail after being arrested for questioning.
Detectives said they had no reason to believe it was a race attack. Damilola's family, who had complained that he had been bullied, have not asked for it to be treated as a race attack.