Man’s throat cut in cigarette row

A MAN was stabbed to death in a shop because he refused to give a cigarette to a stranger on a night of ‘appalling’ violence in London.

Horrified shop workers told how a customer in his 30s was slashed across the neck with a sixinch blade when a fight broke out in a 24-hour off-licence at around 3am yesterday.

The attack in the affluent south London suburb of East Dulwich was one of three stabbings in the capital in one night. The store’s assistant manager

Muhammad Khan said: ‘The guy with the knife asked the other for free cigarettes, as a favour or something. They had an argument and he took out a knife.’

He added: ‘We have had no trouble here before – it’s very nice, educated and wealthy people living around here.’

Helen Hayes, Labour MP for East Dulwich tweeted: ‘Appalled to learn of a fatal stabbing... Another family devastated due to knife crime.’