Detectives investigating the murder of a man stabbed to death in the street have released CCTV footage of a car they want to trace.

Raja Ali, from Elm Park, died on Sunday September 25 after being attacked by a group of men in Stansgate Road, Dagenham.

Three men have been charged with his murder, but police are now trying to locate a silver Mitsubishi Shogun jeep which was involved in a crash nearby just before Mr Ali was attacked.

The jeep, registration P353PKE, was involved in a collision on Stansgate Road, Dagenham, at around 7.30pm.

It was driven onto the pavement outside Costcutter’s before it drove away from Stansgate Road in the direction of Listowel Road.

The 33-year-old managed to stagger around the corner into Braintree Road where he was found by police and paramedics. He died at the scene and a postmortem gave the cause of death as stab wounds.

Detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command are appealing to anyone who may have seen the vehicle travelling to Braintree Road before the inciden.

They also want to find out where it travelled afterwards and its current location.

Anyone with information should contact the incident room on 020 8345 3775 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or at crimestoppers-uk.org

Three men aged 25, 21 and 33 have been charged with Mr Ali’s murder.

Five other men, aged 21, 21, 21, 26 and 27, have been arrested in connection and bailed to return later in November.