Tributes to teenager after fatal stabbing
Cards and bunches of flowers have been left in tribute to a 16-year-old boy who died after being stabbed in the neck in Huddersfield.
Ahmad Mamdouh Al Ibrahim died in hospital after being attacked in Ramsden Street on Thursday.
A temporary shrine to the teenager has been set up on the pavement near the scene, with flowers and messages being left by passers-by.
Alfie Franco, 20, from Kirkburton, appeared at Leeds Magistrates' Court on Saturday charged with the teenager's murder and possessing a knife in a public place, and he was remanded in custody until his next expected appearance at the city's crown court on Tuesday.
Among those gathered at the scene earlier was Brian Cross, chair of trustees for the Shared Goods charity based in the town centre.
He said Ahmad was a Syrian asylum seeker who came to the charity last week.
"We were deeply shocked by this and it's rather moving that so many people have made floral tributes," Mr Cross said.
Stephen Gregson, 70, said he happened across the incident soon after it happened.
"That night I never slept," he said.
"All I could visualise was that young man laid on the floor.
"It was like something from a horror film.
"It was awful."
The retired 70-year-old from Heckmondwike returned to the scene to lay flowers.
"I'll never forget this. I'm still upset, even though I didn't know the lad," he said.
"I've got a 17-year-old granddaughter and to think that this has happened in broad daylight is quite worrying."
At least 40 bunches of flowers have so far been placed near the scene in the town centre.
One message read: "To the lad I didn't know. You've taken my heart. Love from a stranger."
A message of sorrow was also left by staff members from the nearby post office who wrote: "RIP. Young life gone so early."
It added that everyone at the post office was "thinking of the family".
Another message among the flowers, marked as being "from a stranger", said: "The Huddersfield community is saddened by this."
Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
West Yorkshire Police

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Man who murdered uncle and hid body in bank jailed
A drug dealer who kidnapped and murdered his uncle before hiding his body in a bank vault has been jailed for more than 34 years. Asghar Badshah, a 39-year-old bus driver from Bradford, was taken to a disused bank on Commercial Street in Batley by his nephew, Tahir Syed, on 30 November 2019 over a missing sum of money, Leeds Crown Court heard. Mr Badshah was beaten to death and his body was found behind a false wall in a vault four weeks later. Syed, 42, of no fixed address, was found guilty of murder, conspiracy to kidnap and drugs conspiracy offences on Monday and sentenced at the same court earlier. Syed and his associates had imported tonnes of cocaine and heroin to the UK in more than 30 shipments between 2016 to 2021, the court heard. Judge Thomas Bayliss KC said Mr Badshah had been asked to "hide a large amount of cash" by Syed, who then suspected Mr Badshah of stealing £600,000 from him. The court was told how Mr Badshah was kidnapped from his mother's address in Mayo Road, Bradford, in a Mercedes at around 01:35 GMT on the day of the murder and taken to the bank, where he was beaten with a metal rod. Syed lied to his family, the court heard, telling them that his uncle was still alive, knowing that in reality his naked body had been stored in an old vault in the disused bank. Judge Bayliss said: "I am quite sure that your primary purpose, was to detain and interrogate Asghar Badshah, in order to ascertain where the missing money was." Syed was jailed for a minimum term of 34 years and 153 days, taking into account almost four years already spent behind bars since being extradited from Turkey. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. West Yorkshire Police
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sex offender who followed girl on train jailed
A man who followed a 15-year-old girl on a train and made sexual comments to her has been jailed. Zainal Osman, 31, who was subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order because of a previous offence, approached the girl on a train from York to Sherburn-in-Elmet at about 21:50 BST on 25 May, according to British Transport Police. Osman, of Barlby Road, Selby, pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual communication with a child and to failing to notify police of a change of address, as part of his requirements under the Sexual Offences Act. He was jailed for 32 weeks at York Magistrates' Court on 5 June. He must also sign the sex offenders register for 10 years. Officers said Osman was "visibly drunk" when he approached the girl. "He repeatedly professed his love for her, and despite the girl telling Osman her age he continued to make advances," a force spokesperson said. The girl called the police and a ticket inspector who saw what was happening intervened and helped the girl to safely leave the train. British Transport Police officers met the train at the next stop, Selby railway station, and Osman was arrested and taken into custody. Det Con Liam Brown said: "This was a frightening ordeal for the girl and it is because of her bravery that Osman has been brought to justice." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. British Transport Police
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why Syrian antiquities are flooding Facebook Marketplace
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Listed alongside the more familiar knackered sofas and unwanted books are ancient, stolen treasures: Facebook Marketplace has become a profitable hub for the sale of looted and trafficked Syrian antiquities. Since the fall of the Assad regime, "widespread poverty" and the "collapse" of the nation's "once-feared security apparatus" have sparked a "gold rush" of looters, robbing 2000-year-old graves for artefacts to sell online, said The Guardian. Syria's location in the "heart of the fertile crescent where settled civilisation first emerged", means it is "awash" with "mosaics, statues and artefacts" that "fetch top dollar" from Western collectors. Nearly a third of the 1,500 Syrian cases that the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research project has documented since 2012 have occurred since December alone. When Assad fell, there was a "huge spike on the ground", said Amr al-Azm, a co-director of the ATHAR project. There was a "complete breakdown" of any of the constraints that used to control looting. "The last three to four months has seen the biggest flood of antiquities trafficking I have ever seen, from any country, ever," said ATHAR's other co-director Katie Paul. This has upset many Syrians and some have protested outside the National Museum in Damascus, demanding the protection of the nation's antiquities from illicit excavations. The "destruction" of our cultural heritage is a "blatant attack on our history", one of them told Syrian news agency Sana, and it must be confronted "by all possible means". The looters, "armed with pickaxes, shovels and jackhammers", come by night to "disturb the dead", said The Guardian. Under "cover of darkness", they dig up ancient graves in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra, searching for historic booty. Once the treasures are "out of the ground", they "make their way online", and Facebook has "emerged as a key hub" for their sale, with public and private groups offering "ancient coins, entire mosaics and heavy stone busts" to the "highest bidder". In one post on Facebook, "a user offered a pile of ancient coins for sale", writing, "I have been holding them for 15 years, Free Syria." In a video "shared in a Facebook group in March", a man with a Syrian accent displays "a mosaic depicting Zeus on a throne, using his mobile phone for scale". "This is the fastest we've ever seen artefacts being sold," said ATHAR's Paul. It used to take a year to sell a mosaic but now they can go in just two weeks. In response, ATHAR is tracking the route of trafficked Middle Eastern antiquities online and building a database of more than 26,000 screenshots, videos, and pictures. But the team wants more help from Facebook. In 2020, the social media behemoth banned the sale of historical antiquities on its platform but Paul says the policy is rarely enforced. So it continues to be used as a "gateway for traffickers", linking "low-level looters" in Syria to "criminal networks" that smuggle the artefacts out of the country and ship them "around the world to create fake bills of sale and provenance". After 10 to 15 years, the treasures make their way into legal auction houses, where collectors and museums, mostly in the US and Europe, "snap them up".