A talented teenage boxer died after being stabbed in the back with a large hunting knife during a scuffle with two former school friends just yards from his home, a jury has heard.

Mohammed Aman Ashraq, who was said to have been boxing training on the morning of his death, was found bleeding next to a backpack containing what appeared to be gym kit, towels and shower gel, as well as a socket wrench, the jury heard on Thursday.

The prosecution said Mr Ashraq had been dealt "a severe blow with what was clearly a lethal weapon" and 18-year-olds Hamza Mahmood and Mohammed Hussain were accused of murdering him on Benjamin Lane in Wexham.

Hussain lived just seven doors down from Mr Ashraq on Benjamin Lane and the victim and both defendants had attended nearby Wexham Secondary School.

Ian Hope, prosecuting, said: "There was a falling out between a small number of young men, all aged 18 years.

"Those who were involved, thereafter deliberately withheld the circumstances of the falling out. Whatever it had been led to a confrontation between the two defendants in this trial, both of whom were waiting together on a street corner and the deceased victim, Mohammed Ashraq.

"Mr Ashraq was seen on CCTV running towards them, he threw his arms around Mohammed Hussain, there was then a struggle which involved Mohammed Hussain and Mohammed Ashraq and the second defendant, Hamza Mahmood, was physically engaged in it.

"Mohammed Ashraq went on the ground and never arose, having been stabbed in the back with a large hunting knife which was recovered from bushes nearby. Both defendants left in the same direction.

"The four young men, of a similar age, were apparently well known to each other. The second defendant, Hamza Mahmood, told police Mohammed Ashraq had been a good friend of his."

CCTV footage played at Reading Crown Court was said to show the defendants standing on a residential road as an Ocado delivery driver arrived at just before 8pm.

Mr Ashraq could be seen running in from the right of the camera and he immediately began grappling with Hussain on the floor, while Mahmood stood over them.

After several seconds, Hussain could be seen getting up and both defendants were filmed fleeing the scene as another man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, arrived and tried to help Mr Ashraq, the jury were told.

Mr Hope told how an Ocado delivery driver, who was parked nearby, had tried to apply pressure to Mr Ashraq's wound, but noticed the young man seemed unable to breathe, while a woman who lived nearby had run out with clothing and a towel to try and help.

Medics treating Mr Ashraq, who weighed 13 stone and four pounds, discovered he had suffered a wound which was 4.2 centimetres long and 1.6 centimetres wide.

The 18-centimetre long hunting knife which the prosecution said was used, a photograph of which was shown to the jury, had one serrated edge and a sharpened point.

Mr Hope said the knife had plunged 13-centimetres deep into Mr Ashraq, cleaving through a rib, the left lung and then severed the base of a major artery.

A pathologist, who performed a post mortem examination, concluded "a severe degree of force had been used" and the cause of death was a stab wound to Mr Ashraq's chest and abdomen, the court heard.

Glasses from Specsavers, which Mr Hope said matched a pair purchased by Hussain, were found at the scene, as well as the hunting knife which the prosecution said had been used in the killing.

DNA found in blood on the blade of the hunting knife matched Mr Ashraq's, the prosecutor said, while DNA on the handle was one and a half million times more likely than not to belong to Hussain.

Mr Hope told the jury: "It is clear that the two defendants deliberately paired up together in the early evening on January 4.

"Something was taking place between them involving on the one hand the two defendants and on the other hand the victim and his friend. Whatever it was that was taking place between them was, we say, illicit. The prosecution say it involved an exchange of some sort.

"Neither defendant attempted to explain to the police what was going on between the parties."

Hamza Mahmood, of Shaggy Calf Lane, Slough and Mohammed Hussain, of Benjamin Lane, Wexham, both deny murder.

The trial continues.