FEUDING Sri Lankans murdered a man with an axe and a sword in revenge for an almost identical attack, the Old Bailey heard.

Mayooran Thangarajah, 24, of Elm Park Avenue, Wembley, was injured in the first incident and took revenge by killing Ajan Ratnasegaram, 19, it was claimed.

The victim was sitting in an Alfa Romeo when the windows were smashed and he was stabbed in A stain of Thangarajah's blood was found on one of the car's windows, but he said it must have been transferred from a weapon used to attack him five days before.

Prosecutor Wendy Joseph, QC, said many Sri Lankans in the Alperton area were involved in warring factions.

"In the months and weeks before the death of Ajan, the hostility between the various groups seems to have been increasing," she said.

"There had been attack and counter-attack. Each was a serious crime."

The victim took part in the attack on Thangarajah near the Cinnamon Garden restaurant in Ealing Road in August last year.

Thangarajah was in a friend's Vauxhall Calibra when eight Tamils set about it with the axe and sword. He suffered facial injuries and a friend was so badly hurt it was thought he might not survive.

Thangarajah deliberately gave police misleading details so he could mete out his own justice, it was alleged.

Miss Joseph said: "We can't have the streets of London used to play out revenge attacks.

"Justice has to be done, not at swordpoint, but in this court."

An axe found near the scene was stained with Ajan's blood of Ajan and that of one of the men in the Calibra. Fragments of glass embedded in the handle matched the car's windows.

Five days later, Thangarajah and two friends were in the Alfa at traffic lights in Carlyon Road, Wembley, when a car pulled up and gang members got out.

"Their weapons included a sword and a long sharp object on a metal pole," Miss Joseph said.

"They were thrust through the car window."

Ajan managed to run from the car, despite a stab wound which had penetrated his heart. He climbed over railings but collapsed and was found dead by passers-by.

Miss Joseph said: "The blood stain in the Alfa Romeo showed there was only a one in a billion chance that Thangarajah was not one of the attackers."

Thangarajah denies murder and causing grievous bodily to two men.

The trial continues.