A private schoolgirl was stabbed to death by a teenage boy yesterday after she “rejected his flowers”, The Daily Telegraph understands.

The 15-year-old - named locally as Eliyanna - was travelling to school in Croydon, south London, when a row broke out between herself, her friends and other pupils from a local school, witnesses claim.

The argument is said to have spilt out of the number 60 bus and on to the pavement outside a shopping centre, where the girl was attacked by a young man wielding a “sword-like knife” and “wearing all black” at around 8.30am.

Paramedics tried to save the teenager, who residents said had had a “fantastic future ahead of her”, but she died at the scene.

The suspect and Eliyanna are understood to have known each other.

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