A MURDER hunt is underway after a man was killed just a block away from Tony Blair s house off the Edgware Road. The 22-year-old man, named today as Atef Jablaoui, was involved in a fight with a group of young men on the corner of Park West Place and Kend

A MURDER hunt is underway after a man was killed just a block away from Tony Blair's house off the Edgware Road.

The 22-year-old man, named today as Atef Jablaoui, was involved in a fight with a group of young men on the corner of Park West Place and Kendal Street, near Connaught Village.

After he was punched he fell to the ground and his head hit on the kerb.

Paramedics rushed to the scene and he was taken to hospital, where he died three days later.

Following the death in the early hours, police have this week launched a murder investigation and are hunting his killers.

"I heard there were three guys and they were all mates," said a worker at Lellers car wash on Kendal Street, just yards from the fight scene.

"They were squaring up to each other and someone threw a punch.

"This guy fell to the ground and hit his head on the kerb. It sounds like a terrible accident, one of those horrible tragedies.

"They were all young guys - around 18 or 19. They've probably fled the country now."

A staff member in the William Hill betting shop on the Edgware Road said late-night fights were becoming common place.

"There are always guys fighting," he said. "I'm 22 myself - I can't believe this has happened. It makes you very scared."

Mr Jablaoui, a Tunisian national living in Harrow, was involved in the fight in the early hours of Friday March 6.

A woman living in the Park West apartments said she believed he had family links in the Edgware Road area.

She described how, on the morning after the attack, police flooded the streets and sealed off the whole area to carry out forensic work.

CID officers came to her door a few days later to inform her that the young man had died as a result of his injuries.

She added: "These apartments used to be the place to be seen in the 1960s and 1970s - George Best used to live here.

"Then slowly but surely the place has changed for the worst. The people on the streets are intimidating and it's very stressful for the people living here, especially when there's been a murder."

Police confirmed a murder investigation is now underway. A spokeswoman for the Met said: "We can confirm that a murder investigation has been launched after a 22 year-old man died after being assaulted outside a block of flats on Edgware Road in the early hours of Friday March 6."

A spokesman for the London Ambulance Service said: "At around 11.30pm we were called to reports of an assault. We sent an ambulance to the scene and young male was taken to hospital."

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