A 19-year-old stabbed to death in Goodmayes yesterday was a “good guy” who was trying to break up a fight, friends have said.

The teenager, named locally as Ziggy Owusu, died in the early hours of Thursday morning after he was stabbed in Goodmayes Road, Goodmayes.

Emergency services arrived at 12.40am and found him with stab wounds to the stomach. He was taken to hospital where medics battled to save him, but he was pronounced dead an hour later.

His friend Josh, who went to secondary school with him in Surrey, said Ziggy was always smiling.

He told the Recorder: “He was a good guy.

“He shouldn’t have been taken so young but he was trying to stop a fight.”

Residents in the area reported a “commotion” outside a shisha bar on the street earlier that night.

A resident, who lives overlooking Goodmayes Road and wished to remain anonymous, said there were 80 to 90 teenagers congregating in the area at around 12pm, “which was unusual”.

He continued: “People kept coming. I heard men arguing and it kept getting louder, then there was a girl screaming.”

He added: “I think it was something over a girl.”

A 32-year-old woman said she saw a man being taken out of a shisha bar on a stretcher.

“When I looked outside, there were loads of police cars and an ambulance and they were carrying a young boy out on a stretcher.

“He had a oxygen mask on and a white sheet up to his neck. It looked bad.”

Detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command are now investigating.

A post-mortem examination will take place in due course.

There have been no arrests at this time and enquiries continue.