Three bailed in boy's murder inquiry

Murdered: 10-year-old Damilola Taylor had complained of being bullied, his father has said

LONDON, England -- Three people questioned by police in connection with the murder of a 10-year-old Nigerian boy have been released on bail.

Damilola Taylor was fatally stabbed on a London housing estate as he made his way home from school.

His body was found in the stairwell of a block of flats in Peckham. He had been stabbed in the leg.

Scotland Yard said on Saturday two black teenagers and a black woman had been arrested in connection with the death.

The killing of the young schoolboy has received wide publicity in Britain and Nigeria, throwing the spotlight on violent crime in Britain's poor urban areas.

A police statement said: "This morning at 6 a.m. (0600 GMT) two black youths aged 13 and a black woman, aged 39, were arrested at addresses in the Southwark area in connection with the murder of Damilola Taylor."

The arrest came as the victim's father, Nigerian civil servant Richard Taylor, visited the spot where his son died with other family members.

Police said the family were allowed private time at the scene, where they laid flowers.

Witnesses said Taylor, who arrived in Britain on Friday, wept at the scene and called out for his "beautiful, beautiful boy."

The grieving father told the Daily Mail newspaper that his son had begged him to come to Britain to save him from bullies.

Taylor told the paper that during their last telephone conversation his son had said: "Daddy they are beating me. You must come to London now."

He added: "I tried to reassure him. I said I would see him at Christmas, that things would be sorted out.

"I didn't understand how serious things had become. I should have gone. That was the last time I heard my son's voice."

The Peckham estate where the dead boy lived with his mother has been portrayed as a London ghetto of high unemployment where large immigrant communities live in constant fear of crime.

Prime Minister Tony Blair and Home Secretary Jack Straw have both expressed their shock and offered their sympathy to the boy's family.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone called the killing "an event of unique horror."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Scotland Yard
Borough of Southwark

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