A MURDER hunt was launched last night after crowds of horrified shoppers saw a stabbing victim collapse in the street bleeding from a fatal wound.

The victim, who has not been identified, died in Middlesbrough General Hospital last night after being attacked in a busy shopping mall teeming with bargain hunters.

Witnesses saw the man - one hand clamped over his wounded neck to staunch the flow of blood - running out of the Cleveland Centre, Middlesbrough, where he had been attacked, and out into Linthorpe Road.

Covered in blood, he dashed through crowds of alarmed shoppers packing the narrow street. He staggered as far as Grange Road where he handed his mobile phone to a bystander to call an ambulance before collapsing on the pavement.

Passers-by ran into the nearby McDonalds restaurant to raise the alarm.

Two managers went to help the dying man, fighting to stem the bleeding until an ambulance arrived.

He was taken under police escort to Middlesbrough General Hospital where he went straight into surgery.

On what was one of the centre's busiest days of the year, with an estimated 80,000 shoppers pouring through it, the mall lane where the stabbing occurred was cleared of shoppers and shop workers, to allow police forensic experts to examine the scene and recover the knife.

Reels of film shot by closed, circuit television security cameras inside the complex were taken away by police for viewing.

Inspector Steve Bakewell of Cleveland Police said: "Passers-by have described a man running away from the scene of the stabbing back through the Cleveland Centre. He is described as being in his mid 20s and wearing dark clothing."

Witness Craig Vincent said: "I saw the victim come running past me, a mobile phone in his left hand and his right hand holding his neck.

"Blood was spurting out between his fingers and running down his chest. He was running as fast as he could.

"He got to the top, to McDonalds, and gave a young lad his mobile, to telephone for an ambulance. He was in a bad way."

Witnesses to the stabbing or to the assailant running away are asked to ring Cleveland Police on (01642) 301543.

l A 27-year-old man was last night charged with the murder of Kevin Mawhinney on Boxing Day.

Keith Arthur Wright, of George Avenue, Easington Colliery, County Durham, will appear before magistrates in Chester-le-Street this morning.

Mr Mawhinney, 33, was found with a stab wound outside his James Street home in Easington Colliery and died later in Hartlepool General Hospital