The Delhi Police have arrested five schoolboys for allegedly stabbing a 17-year-old to death in a bus in southeast Delhi’s New Friends Colony, PTI reported.

The incident is believed to have taken place on Thursday, when Mohammad Anas had boarded a bus from Ashram Chowk to Jamia Nagar.

The youngsters are aged between 12 and 15, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast Delhi) Romil Baniya told ANI. They reportedly snatched Anas’ mobile phone and stabbed him in the neck when he confronted them.

“Other passengers witnessed the incident as well, but they could not do anything as the attackers jumped out of the bus after stabbing the boy,” the bus conductor told the police, according to The Indian Express.

The accused are government school students, The Hindu quoted unidentified police officials as saying. The boys reportedly told the police that they carried a weapon as they often stole money and valuables from passengers on buses.

Anas, the eldest of three siblings, was a first-year B Com student at the Al Falah University in Faridabad and a resident of the city’s Jamia Nagar neighbourhood.