POLICE were last night questioning a 16-year-old arrested on suspicion of murder after a teenager was stabbed to death on a crime-ravaged North-East estate.

Mark Smith, 16, who was celebrating getting his first job as a mechanic, suffered the fatal wound as he walked home in Newcastle's West End on Wednesday night.

He was taken to Newcastle General hospital with neck injuries at about 11.30pm, but he later died.

Mark's grandmother yesterday spoke of her shock and grief at the death of the teenager who was last year served with an Asbo, but was trying to turn his life around.

Frances Cleminson, 72, of Nichol Street, Benwell, fought back tears when she said: "We are devastated by this. We are a close family and his mother is in pieces. She loves her bairn and she can't believe he has gone.

"He was a good lad and like any other adventurous teenager.

"He had been told yesterday that he was being taken on full-time as an apprentice mechanic at a garage where he had been working part-time.

"Mark was determined not to go on the dole, and he had found his perfect job. He was so happy."

Mark lived with his parents, Margaret and Paul Smith, brothers, Paul, 27, and Darren, 19, and sisters Sara, 26, and Debra, 12. He was a pupil at Westgate Community College until last year.

Residents in Benwell said the streets were unsafe to walk at night because of knife-wielding teenagers.

Chris Yeaman, 19, of Elswick, Newcastle, told how he was mugged by a knife gang 24 hours earlier.

He said: "I wasn't surprised to have a knife pulled on me, that's just Benwell for you.

"That's what life here is like - this place is ruled by the blade."

Detective Chief Inspector Roger Ford, leading the murder inquiry, said a number of people were thought to have been in the area around Gill Street and Elswick Road, where Mark collapsed.

He urged anyone with information to call 08456-043-043 or ring Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800-555-111.