Police today appealed to a community for calm in the wake of the murder of an Iranian asylum-seeker.

The 28-year-old was stabbed to death in a "racially motivated" attack, police said.

Northumbria Police have yet to name the dead man but ethnic minority rights agency The Monitoring Group today said his name was Tayman Bahmani.

Suresh Nayman of The Monitoring Group, an agency set up in 1979 to help ethnic minority individuals and groups, said: "He had been in the United Kingdom for only two years, having fled Iran for fear of his life.

"Tayman's friends and family believe that this attack was racially motivated as Tayman had often complained of previous racial harassment but no one responded to his pleas."

Mr Bahmani was stabbed when two groups, one white, the other Iranian, clashed on Peel Street in the Hendon suburb of Sunderland at 3.20pm yesterday.

He was taken to Sunderland Royal Hospital where he later died.

Supt Paul Weir, area commander for Sunderland City Police, today said: "We have a dedicated policing team working in the Hendon area dealing positively with any racist incidents and we would appeal for people in the area to remain calm to allow police to investigate this incident without any distraction.

"We fully intend to keep community leaders informed of the progress of our investigation and will be inviting them to sit down and talk with us."

Investigating officers are working closely with the local community to piece together yesterday's events.

Det Supt Steve Bolam, leading the investigation, said: "We know there was a confrontation involving two groups of people in the street one group of white people and the other a group of Iranian men.

"We have now spoken to the dead man's friends and are dealing with this as a racist incident.

"Clearly one of our main priorities is to trace witnesses to the actual incident and the lead-up to it.

"We believe there may have been earlier confrontations in the area before the actual stabbing so it is very important that people who witnessed anything should get in touch with us.

"We have already been in touch with a number of agencies, community groups and voluntary organisations and it is important that we all work together."

Two men and a woman were in custody helping police with inquiries into the fatal stabbing.

Police set up an incident room to co-ordinate the investigation, and any witnesses can contact 0191 563 6180.