A 20-year-old man who only arrived in Britain two months ago died in his best friend's arms after being chased and stabbed by a gang in a busy shopping centre, writes dailymail.co.uk.

Romanian Beniamin Pieknyi, 20, is believed to have jumped in to the fight in a bid to save his friend during the altercation at the Stratford Centre in east London.

The takeaway shop employee had only arrived in the UK from Romania two months ago.

The London Evening Standard reports he had been living with his brother in Milton Keynes and had recently celebrated his 20th birthday.

Ion Robert told the newspaper: 'He was really kind, and always trying to help everybody. He gave his life to save his friend… He died in the arms of his best friend.

These guys were trying to attack his friend and he intervened – he was trying to save his friend's life. He was really happy with his job, he was a good guy.'

A Met Police spokesman said: 'Police were called on Tuesday March 20 at 9.30pm to reports of a disturbance in Stratford Centre.

'Officers attended along with the London Ambulance Service and found a man, believed to be in his early 20s, suffering from stab injuries.

'Despite the efforts of the emergency services he was pronounced dead at the scene. His next of kin have now been informed. Formal identification awaits and a post mortem examination will be held in due course.'   

So far no arrests have been made. 

The attack comes amid a wave of knife crime to have swept the UK this year, with eight killings in the capital since Wednesday last week.  

Russell Jones, 23, was ambushed outside shops near Ponders End station, Enfield, at 12.40am on Saturday. 

The Hertfordshire University student was shot and stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack, while a second man was taken to hospital with severe injuries.

Of the other seven victims, Lyndon Davis, 18, is the youngest to have been named.

He was found suffering from a single stab wound in Chadwell Heath, east London on March 14. 

Joseph Williams-Torres, 20, was killed the same evening as he sat in a stationary car in Essex Close, Walthamstow, 

Russell Jordan Jones was found three days later with stab and gunshot wounds in South Street, Enfield, on March 17.    

The attacks come as charity campaigners warn London has reached a 'crisis point'.   

Patrick Green, chief executive of knife-crime awareness charity the Ben Kinsella Trust, said authorities had not done enough to educate young people on the dangers of carrying knives, despite a 'steady increase' in violent attacks.

He said: 'We are at crisis point.

'We are seeing a steady increase in violent crime, and I think things may well get worse before they get better.

'I think what we are seeing now is that we haven't done enough to help educate young people not to carry knives in the first place, or to turn away from violence and I think until we do we are not really going to solve this problem.'

Mr Green added that long-term solutions to the 'crisis' would take time before they became effective, and said it would not be possible to 'arrest our way out' of the problem.

He added: 'It's not like flicking a switch. We can't just turn this around really quickly.

'We have an over-stretched police force doing the best that it can in terms of enforcement, but we haven't invested enough in helping young people understand carrying a knife won't protect them, it won't solve conflicts, and we need to do far more around that approach to tackle this issue.'