Asian's murder 'racial'

AN ASIAN man stabbed in a busy street may have been the victim of a racial murder, police said yesterday.

Kent detectives investigating the death of 56-year-old Remi Surage are appealing for witnesses to the attack in Orpington High Street at 2.30pm on Tuesday. After being stabbed, Mr Surage staggered a few yards to a church hall where he was given first aid, but he died later in Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup.

Mr Surage, from Croydon, was able to tell detectives he had been attacked by two white men whom he passed sitting on a bench near the war memorial. He described the man who stabbed him as very scruffy with short cropped hair and aged around 30 to 35.

Mr Surage, who was 5ft 5ins tall and walked with a stoop following a severe stroke, had been staying with his sister in the Orpington area after being released from hospital about a month ago.

Detective Chief Inspector Brian Bowden-Brown, leading the investigation said: "The motive for the murder I don't know at the present moment but race is a possibility ... This does seem to be an unprovoked attack."