A MURDER investigation has been launched after a teenager was stabbed to death following a disagreement.

Neighbours described the harrowing moment they saw 18-year-old Ashley Meadowcroft fighting for his life on the pavement and screaming for help after receiving a single stab wound to the chest.

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Resident Margaret Hannan, 48, of Accrington Road, Blackburn, said: “I came out of my house and he was lying on the ground and saying ‘please, somebody help me’.

“Ash is a really good lad. His life has been taken away and it should not have happened.”

A 20-year-old woman from the town has been arrested on suspicion of murder and was being questioned by officers yesterday.

Police said the victim knew his attacker but they were not treating it as a domestic incident.

Friends and family paid tribute to the former Blackburn College student, who is named locally as Ashley Meadowcroft, describing him as ‘loveable’ and a ‘top lad’.

The youngster had recently turned his life around by being the only person in the area to be handed a prestigious national training award after finding himself homeless.

He had also completed a six-week evening course at the Fielden Street college and left a year ago.

Police were called to Fecitt Brow, in the Intack area of Blackburn, around 8.20pm on Sunday to reports of a disturbance.

Residents in the street said they believed Mr Meadowcroft, a former Blakewater College pupil, had been attacked in an end-of-terrace house before running outside to try to get help where he collapsed.

He was given CPR at the scene, but died shortly after in the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

An investigation was launched and detectives found a knife believed to have been used in the assault in the back garden of the bungalow next door.

Tina Richardson, who lives in the neighbouring property, said: “We are still in shock.

“I saw the police officers doing CPR on the lad outside. All I could hear was them saying ‘keep with us Ash’.

“Then the ambulance took him off really quickly.

“The police then found a knife in my garden. It is such a big shock.”

Mr Meadowcroft’s cousins Craig, Jake and Iain Wilson, visited the house yesterday morning to lay flowers in his memory.

Craig, 20, said: “Ashley was the best lad you could ever meet but the best has been taken away.

“He was loveable and a very, very good lad. You would hear him before you saw him.

“Ash was into cars and he loved training.

“I just cannot believe what has happened. We all feel terrible.”

Mr Meadowcroft gained gold status in the Award Scheme Development an Accreditation Network (ASDNAN) Personal Development Programme with support from the Darwen-based Nightsafe shelter last year after finding himself homeless.

He did not take his GCSEs and was referred to the youth offending team when he was 12.

But he told the Lancashire Telegraph the qualification had ‘opened new doors for him’.

Jan Larkin, chief executive of Nightsafe, said she had spent most of yesterday sharing memories of Ashley with Nicola Roscoe, manager of the Cornfield Cliffe shelter where he lived for some time.

She said: “Nicola spent a lot of time with Ashley while he was at Cornfield Cliffe and she thought a lot of him.

“He will be remembered by the Nightsafe staff as a very happy fun-loving young man who enjoyed getting involved in our community projects.

“Ash kept in touch with the other young people who used the shelter and was only here the other day spending time with some of our residents.

“He was a nice young man and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

The case is being investigated by Lancashire Police’s force major investigation team.

A post mortem examination will be carried out to try to establish the exact cause of death.

Det Supt Paul Withers said: “We had a call from the area around 8.20pm saying there was a disturbance at the address in Fecitt Brow.

“When our uniformed colleagues arrived, there was a male with a single stab wound to the chest area.

“They administered first aid, but sadly the man was pronounced dead at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

“As a result of inquiries that we made, a woman was arrested in connection with this young man’s murder.”

The woman remained in police custody last night.