A gang of seven youths have been convicted in court following a vicious attack on a 16-year-old in a fast food restaurant in Bromley-by-Bow where armed police had to be called in.

Three of the gang were found guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court yesterday of attempted murder.

The gang, all aged 15 to 17, went into the Perfect Fried Chicken in St Leonard’s Street last April, armed with knives and a machete and their faces covered.

They stabbed the 16-year-old in the chest, severing an artery close to the heart.

The injured boy was taken by ambulance to hospital and rushed immediately into the operating theatre for life saving surgery.

“These youths had a penchant for violence and intimidation despite their young age,” Det Con Marc Parkinson said after yesterday’s convictions.

“This would no doubt have ended in tragedy had we not identified and arrested them.

“I hope these conviction brings a measure of comfort to their young victims and their families.”

Police officers called to the scene were backed up by Scotland Yard’s firearms unit.

Two of the gang were arrested within an hour of the April 1 attack. The rest were identified and arrested over the next six months.

Convictions against five of them included violent disorder, possessing a knife and GBH, while the other two including a 15-year-old admitted GBH and possessing a knife. All seven are due in court for sentencing in mid-December.

Two of the youths were also convicted of GBH and possessing a knife in an attack on three youngsters in west London four weeks after the Bromley-by-Bow incident.

They wore masks and rode bikes when they attacked the youngsters in Ravenscroft Park, near Hammersmith.

One of their victims grabbed the blade in defence, which left him with severe tendon damage to his hand, while the other youth stabbed him in the back of the head causing laceration that exposed his skull.