The 15-year-old Nigerian girl who was stabbed in the neck and killed by a 17-year-old boy on the bus to school has been identified.
Elianne Andam was attacked at 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday, September 27, while on the number 60 bus on her way to school in Croydon, England.
A 17-year-old boy who knew Elianne was arrested just over an hour after the attack.
Elianne’s aunt Marian has spoken of her family’s “heartbreak” at the tragic death.
She told The Mirror: “This is a tragedy. It hasn’t sunk in yet for my sister. She wanted to be a lawyer. She went to a private school and had a great future ahead of her. My sister paid for her education.
“She was a lovely girl, loved gymnastics. She loved doing her hair. We are all devastated by this. We are a big family and we are all here for my sister.
“We can’t comprehend the heartbreak of the last 24 hours. She went to school and didn’t come home.”
Elianne was a pupil at Old Palace of John Whitgift School, a private girls’ school in Croydon. She was less than a mile away from the school gates when she was killed.
The school said in a statement: “We are deeply shocked by the senseless and tragic death of our much-loved and valued friend and pupil.
“It will take some time for the Old Palace community to come to terms with this terrible news, and we will offer support to our pupils as we try to do so.
“Above all, we send our love and deepest sympathies to the girl’s family at this unimaginably distressing time.”
A bus driver and passers-by battled to save Elianne but she tragically died at the scene just minutes after the attack.
Witnesses said a row erupted on the bus after the boy tried to give a bouquet of flowers to his former girlfriend.
The suspect, identified only as a 17-year-old boy who was known to the victim, allegedly tried to give his former girlfriend, Elianne’s friend, a bouquet of flowers on a No. 60 double-decker bus in Croydon Wednesday morning.
As Elianne, her friend, and the ex-boyfriend stepped off the bus at Wellesley Road around 8:30 a.m. local time, Elianne was said to have stepped in between her friend and the boy to defuse the tension between the two.
That was when the enraged ex allegedly pulled out a black, thin knife and plunged its long blade into Elianne’s neck.
An eyewitness said blood sprang out like water and the best efforts of a bus driver and others there could not save Elianne. She died 40 minutes later.
The assailant fled the scene but was apprehended under an hour later.
Elianne was of Nigerian descent and from a devout Christian family. Her mother is a National Health Service nurse and her father is a social worker and author.
