HERO GIRL, 15, 'KILLED TRYING TO SAVE FRIEND'

A 15-YEAR-OLD girl was stabbed to death yesterday while "protecting a friend who was rowing with an ex-boyfriend", witnesses said.

- Cyril Dixon

She was knifed in the neck with a blade - described as "a foot long" on the way to her £19,000-a-year private school.

It was claimed her attacker, who like the girl was in uniform, lashed out after she got off a No 60 bus in Croydon, South London. Her friend had reportedly refused flowers from the boy.

The bus driver and a passer-by initially tried to save the victim as she lay bleeding in her smart green clothing outside a shopping centre.

But medics pronounced her dead less than an hour later, just before her parents arrived at the scene.

Scotland Yard said that police soon arrested a 17-year-old who "may know" the girl. Officers also recovered what appeared to be a handwritten love note to a "special girl" and a "princess".

Scrawled on a white envelope, it read: "I love you so so much and I never met someone with a better smile and better eyes than what you have."

A posy of red roses was seen on the pavement as forensics specia ists scoured the scene for clues.

Jane Burton, headteacher at Croydon's Old Palace of John Whitgift girls school, joined police, politicians and community leaders in expressing her horror.

She said: "We are deeply shocked by the senseless and tragic death of our much-loved and valued friend and pupil.

"It will take some time for the Old Palace community to come to terms with this terrible news, and we will offer support for our pupils as we try to do so. Above all, we send our love and deepest sympathies to the girl's family at this unimaginably distressing time."