Police are trying to track down three suspects who fled a party in Western Sydney after a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death.
At 3.00am on Saturday morning, emergency services were called to Australis Drive, Ropes Crossing and found the boy with a single stab wound.
Police officers performed CPR until paramedics arrived. However, the boy died at the scene.
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Tickner, crime manager of the Mount Druitt command, said the stabbing happened after another teenage male felt he needed to defend his girlfriend.
"[There were] young boys, probably with some hormones running through their system, and someone thought they had to defend the right of their girlfriend at the scene and unfortunately, it's led to a young boy being killed," he said.
"They shouldn't have been carrying knives in the first place.
"He had his whole life ahead of him."
The gathering was attended by about eight or nine people and the victim only met the suspected offenders on the night, Detective Chief Inspector Tickner said.
The girl hosting the party invited a female friend of hers who brought her boyfriend and two other males. The boyfriend is the key suspect.
Police found a kitchen knife in a drain near the house but forensic teams were yet to determine if it was connected to the crime scene.
The three suspected offenders and the girlfriend all immediately fled the scene of the crime and police are searching the surrounding area in hopes of tracking their movements.
Detective Chief Inspector Tickner urged them to hand themselves in immediately.
"But it's just a matter of time before we're knocking on the door and we will bring them back here either way."
He said it was a constant struggle to crack down on knife possession in the area but police constantly targeted juveniles with suspected criminal associations.
Ouwais Menzel, who founded Youth Against Violence, said knife violence was escalating in Western Sydney and too many young people considered it "normal" to carry a knife.
"We've seen this problem escalate to a stage where we feel like it's becoming uncontrollable," Mr Menzel said.
"If [your peers' have a knife or are speaking about possessing a knife, please tell those friends that possessing a knife is not the answer.
"The only reason somebody would possess a knife is to inflict harm on another person."
He said Youth Against Violence had success rolling out an anti-violence, self-defence program on the Central Coast after a 13-year-old was murdered earlier this year and he is now working to roll out the same program in Liverpool and Mount Druitt.
