Police have charged an 18-year-old man with murdering a man in broad daylight on London's Oxford Street.

Steven Bigby, 22, from Hackney, east London, was stabbed to death outside a McDonald's restaurant on Monday afternoon in a row which erupted after a drink was thrown.

Anthony Costa, of Walthamstow, east London, will appear at Waltham Forest Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with his murder, Scotland Yard said.

A 19-year old man arrested in connection with the attack has been released on police bail pending further inquiries.

Mr Bigby was due to stand trial for the rape of a 16-year-old girl.

Scotland Yard said 22-year-old Steven Bigby was on bail when he was attacked.

He was one of a group of ten men charged over an attack in which it's alleged the victim had caustic soda poured over her to destroy DNA evidence.

She was treated for severe burns after the attack in January. He was also due to stand trial in June over a fight at a snooker club in Tottenham in October 2006 after which a knife was found.

A post-mortem examination at Westminster Mortuary confirmed the victim died of a single stab wound to the heart.

Mr Bigby's murder is the latest in a spate of stabbings and homicides which prompted police to step up the fight against knife crime.

A stop and search team of 15 officers was deployed on the streets of the capital last night, the first of up to ten squads which will hit knife-crime hotspots across London in the coming days.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Tim Godwin said the "fairly-in-your-face" policing would be intelligence-led and with the support of the community, with whom they had shared information.

Police will be able to stop and search people under Section 60 of the Public Order Act, which does not require reasonable suspicion.

The Home Office has provided an additional 100 knife arches and 200 wands for the operation.

Mr Godwin said: "We really, really, really have to do something about carrying weapons on the streets of London, that results in when you have a barney with someone you end up stabbing them instead of hitting them.

"You can't do this from police action alone. It has to be with the full support and commitment of the community.

"Our objective is not about harassing anybody. It's about making everybody as safe as we can in London and if people walk around with knives it dramatically reduces your safety because you could end up with it stuck in you."

Areas to be targeted under Operation Blunt II could include schools, transport hubs and pubs in the boroughs worst affected by knife crime.

Mr Godwin said stop and search was the "natural reaction" to the "horrendous events" of the past few days, adding that he saw it being carried out "long-term".

Some 27 teenagers were murdered in the capital last year. Since the beginning of this year 13 teenagers have been murdered, including nine stabbings and a shooting.

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