Nearly £15,000 has been raised for the family of a young father who was brutally stabbed to death in Shoreditch as he “tried to break up an argument”.

Zakaria Abukar Sharif-Ali, 26 was killed just after 6am on Saturday as he left the Rolling Stock bar in Kingsland Road and intervened in an altercation taking place outside.

Police are now hunting two suspects.

A crowdfunding page has been set up by his friend Zakariya Yahiaoui to cover Zakaria’s funeral costs and to support his wife and two children - a four-year-old boy and two-year-old girl.

He described how Zakaria’s character and personality “made an impression on everyone he met”.

“His genuine personality, sense of humour and desire to help and befriend others touched everyone who knew him, whether you met him once or were a close friend,” he said.

“His family are reeling from this terrible shock. The death of a son is traumatic and draining mentally and physically for the entire family, and I want to do what I can to lessen the financial burden so that can be one less thing for them to worry about.”

Zakaria was taken to hospital in a critical condition after police, medics and the air ambulance were called to the scene at the junction of the A10 with Waterson Street, at 6.30am, but he died two hours later.

The first suspect police want to identify is an olive skinned male, of Mediterranean appearance, aged in his 20s, about 5ft 10ins of stocky build with short dark hair.

The second is a white man, about 6ft tall, of heavy build, with fair-ginger hair and a fluffy beard.

Det Insp Rita Tierney, who is leading the investigation, said: “Zakaria was attempting to calm the incident and was stabbed as a result.”

“This is a busy and popular area of London. I know that there are people who witnessed the incident or have information concerning the identity of the suspects. I urge those people to call the incident room without delay.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 020 8345 3865 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

See the crowdfunding page at bit.ly/2TUhpv0.