Arrest made as Birmingham mourns third teenager stabbed to death in fortnight

Family and friends have been left in mourning after Hazrat Umar was killed - the third teenager in a fortnight to be killed in the city.

The 16-year-old boy from Birmingham was arrested last night and is in police custody for questioning as part of the investigation in Bordesley Green.

Officers said the victim was found seriously injured in Norwood Road shortly after 2pm on Monday.

He was pronounced dead despite efforts by emergency crews to save him.

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Specialist officers are supporting his family and a post mortem will take place in due course.

Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Payne, from the force’s Homicide team, said: “Tragically another young life has been lost to knife crime, the third in Birmingham over the last two weeks.

“My thought are with Hazrat’s family who are devastated by this senseless act and we are doing all we can to bring the person responsible to justice."

The latest offence occurred five days after 16-year-old Abdullah Muhammad was discovered fatally wounded near a park in Small Heath.

Another teenager, Sidali Mohamed, also 16, died in hospital on February 15 after being attacked outside a college in Balsall Heath.

Police say 'heart-to-heart conversations' are need to stem the tide of knife crime in the West Midlands.

Det Ch Supt Payne said: "Knife crime and violence is not an issue we can tackle on our own.

"We need help from partners, parents, schools and the wider community to tackle this growing issue.

"We all need to be having heart-to-heart conversations with children in an attempt to steer them away from knives… and help prevent more lives from being ruined.

"The message that carrying weapons is unacceptable and won’t be tolerated needs to be more firmly reinforced amongst our young people and we all have a role to play in that.

"We all feel the heartbreak of the loss of anyone so young – and a death at the hands of a knife is such a waste of life.

"We’re doing all we can to tackle knife crime, we’re using stop and search powers to target those who carry knives, seizing weapons and working with young people to talk about the dangers of carrying weapons.

"Our intensive investigations ruthlessly pursue those who wish to cause this harm among our communities. And we’ll do all we can to bring offenders to justice.

“While this arrest is a significant step forward in our investigation, we still need anyone who was in the area to come forward and tell us what they saw or know.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact West Midlands Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.