A man was seen being chased along the corridors of a council block moments before a fatal stabbing in south London.

Shocked residents said he had been chased from the other side of Brixton Road before running through a maze of balconies in a bid to escape, but was blocked in by a dead end.

Police were called to the area of Brixton just before 6pm yesterday.

Witnesses saw a helicopter ambulance landing and paramedics rushing towards a man with CPR equipment near Wynne Road.

Two men, both believed to be in their 20s, were rushed to hospital with stab wounds, one of whom died several hours later.

Monica Barroso, a 26-year-old student who lives in the area, said: "I heard the helicopter and saw the paramedics running down the road with CPR equipment.

"As soon as it landed, we saw police cover the road.

"I just saw everybody grouping together and people were saying 'he got shanked, he got shanked.'

"The men were running from Angell Town which is a well known estate on the other side of Brixton Road.

"There are three ramps in the building here but two of them have now been blocked off.

"People usually run down there thinking they can get through but now they get stuck at the other end. It is literally a dead end.

"He was being chased and he was trying to get away through the flats but he didn't know it very well.

"Other people in the building saw him running along the balconies and trying to get away through the building."

Civil servant Patrick Batty, 35, heard shouting by the building yesterday.

The Brixton resident said: "I heard shouting in the late afternoon, but I didn't really see anything.

"I did hear someone say something like 'open the car door' or 'close the car door' but it didn't trigger me to think it was anything unusual.

"It must've been before 6.30pm. I'd heard some raised voices a little bit beforehand.

"Until now, I didn't know what had happened."

A section 60 order granting police additional stop and search powers is in place across an area of south London, including Brixton, Clapham, Kennington and Vauxhall, until 9am on Friday.

No arrests have been made and enquiries continue, police said.