Boy, 17, arrested on suspicion of murder following stabbing in Hailsham

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder following a stabbing in East Sussex.

Emergency services were called to the Vicarage Field area in Hailsham at around 6.20pm on Thursday (29 August) to reports of a man having suffered a serious injury to his chest.

A man in his 20s was treated by paramedics, but died at the scene. His next of kin have been told.

Initial police enquiries identified a suspect, who was found at a property in Hailsham.

A 17-year-old local boy was arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in custody at this time.

• Ch Insp Simon Yates from Sussex Police says there will be an increased police presence in the area to reassure the public.

Ch Insp Simon Yates said: "Children and young people involved in knife crime is alarming and has that long-lasting effect on the community.

"It will take them a while to recover from this. We’re working with partners really closely, the serious violence reduction partnership, as well as children’s services.

"We’re going to have detached youth workers out at the weekend just trying to engage with children and young people to see how they’re feeling and how we can support them in the wake of this incident.

"But as you can imagine, the investigation is really fast-paced and progressing quite fast.

"We do have an increased presence in the area, w’eve got a number of scenes that we’re managing which could appear quite distressing to the community, but we’re there trying to gather all the evidence we can so we can get justice for the victim."

Ch Insp, James Scott, said: “This is a tragic incident which I know will be distressing for the community.

“Our thoughts are with the family of this young man as we seek to understand exactly what happened.

“We are asking anyone who witnessed the incident or has information that could help to contact police online or via 101, quoting Operation Par.”

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