Two teens admit machete murder of boy, 14, on bus

Two teenagers have pleaded guilty to the murder of a 14-year-old boy who was attacked with machetes on a bus in south-east London.

Kelyan Bokassa was stabbed 27 times as he travelled home on a route 472 bus in Woolwich on 7 January.

The two boys, both aged 16, who cannot be named because of their age, appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday, where they also admitted to carrying a bladed weapon.

Sentencing will take place on Friday 25 July.

Kelyan's mother was heard crying in court as the pleas were entered.

Emergency services were called to Woolwich Church Street, near Woolwich Ferry, just before 14.30 GMT, but Kelyan had sustained a severed femoral artery and died shortly after medics arrived.

Scotland Yard later issued CCTV images of two boys as part of a public appeal for information.

A court previously heard that Kelyan had been sitting at the back seat of the bus when two people both armed with "lengthy machetes" attacked him.

The schoolboy was the first teenager to be killed by knife crime in the capital in 2025.