Street where teen was murdered 'friendly area during the day - but nobody wants to go outside at night'

The teenager was injured during an assault in an alleyway between St George's Street and Upper Priory Street, Semilong, shortly after 5pm on Tuesday.

He suffered injuries to his neck and police say he was taken to hospital, but later died.

As a police scene-of-crime team worked in a tent outside flats just off Upper Priory Street to shield them from view, residents spoke about how that part of Semilong seemed like two different places

Position of police tent off Upper Priory Street /St George Street

A worker at the Auction Centre, in St George's Street, said: "It's a friendly place normally. There's a Sikh temple and a school, and everyone gets on with each other. But at night it gets seedy and no one wants to go outside. And there are drug problems in the alleyways.

George Everlast, 52, Harding Terrace, said: "I don't feel safe around here at night. I don't go out without my two dogs. It's been this way around here for years though. It's a shame that he was just a young lad."

The murder happened near Castle Academy. Although the school is on half-term holidays, parents were particularly unsettled by what they or their children may have witnessed if it the murder had happened during another week.

Evelyn Newell, 32, a mother of one, said: "It's disturbing really. My little boy goes to school at Castle Academy and I walk past there everyday. It's so frightening when it's on your doorstep. My friend walked down that street not half-an-hour before it happened too.

"It makes you think it can happen to anyone."

A resident of Upper Priory Street said: "To hear it happened around 5pm, when my son used to go to that school that's when there were after-school activities. It's unbelievable. Thankfully it's half-term."

A member of the nearby Sikh Temple said: "Crime is on the rise all the time. Things have changed in Northampton. I've been here over 20 years but I just don't know what's happening. People have no tolerance and you feel if you talk the wrong way to someone you might get hurt."