A student underwent emergency surgery after being stabbed in the heart.

Ben Frost, 19, from Oxfordshire, was stabbed as he walked home during the early hours yesterday.

The attack in Stanhope Street, Newcastle, took place shortly after midnight when Mr Frost was out visiting friends.

He was approached by a man and a woman and the man struck him in the chest. The teenager became breathless and realised he had been knifed.

He managed to stagger back to his house where his flat-mates raised the alarm.

Two surgeons rushed from Newcastle's Freeman Hospital to the Royal Victoria Infirmary to carry out emergency surgery.

Mr Frost's parents, who travelled from Oxfordshire to be with their son, are keeping a vigil at his bedside, and were too upset to talk. Acting Det Chief Insp John Ramshaw, of Northumbria Police, said: "This was an unprovoked attack on a student walking home.

"There appears to have been an altercation when he was approached by a man and a woman and he was stabbed once in the heart."

Newcastle West End CID officers, who are leading the investigation, have requested closed circuit television footage covering the street where the incident happened.

Mr Frost was still in intensive care last night where his condition was stable.

Story date: Friday 05 March

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