A 10-year-old from Fulham has written a rap version of John Lennon's peace-loving classic ' Imagine ' to try to inspire fellow youths to turn away from violence.

Tyrone Phelps was encouraged to try out his rhyming skills after American rapper T-Bone paid a visit to the Kreative Kidz dance group in Fulham, spending a month working on the lyrics.

His chorus runs: "Imagine there's no violence, imagine there's no knives, imagine there's just people, living out their lives."

The fatal stabbing of 15-year-old Fulham schoolboy Sofyen Belamouadden at Victoria station in March prompted Tyrone's mum, Debbie, to look at ways to spread the message, and she contacted the Damilola Taylor Trust , set up after 10-year-old Damilola's violent death in 2000.

Now Tyrone and three friends have recorded the song, which has been taken up by the trust to encourage more young people to come out against the use of knives.

Debbie, or Burnthwaite Road, Fulham, said: "I thought it was quite good – too good to ignore – so I got in touch with the trust, and since then they've shown an active interest in it.

"There's such huge pressure when you're going into secondary school and I don't want Tyrone getting into a gang, or to think that if they live in Fulham they can't go into certain post codes. The stabbing in Victoria was a bit close to home.

"They want to get the message out that you don't need to carry knives and you don't need to fight people. We're fed up with it and we need to stand up now and say no."

The group is called V.I.K. - Very Important Kids – and includes Tyrone's friends Ryan Bovell, Fulham Green and Leonard Herbertson, who are all soon to leave New Kings Primary School for secondary schools in the area.

Tyrone said: "All the people live in different estates here, but why does it have to be competitive about who's the stronger estate? There are too many stabbings going on.

"I want to inspire people not to carry knives, for the sake of other people."

The group are now planning to film a music video so they can spread the message on the internet, and have met former Eastenders actress Brooke Kinsella, whose brother Ben was also stabbed to death.

They are also backing an anti-knife Facebook petition – to add your name visit facebook.com/countmein