This 20-year-old woman has been stabbed to death when she tried to rescue her friend’s kids from a row between their mum and her ex that turned into a violent neighbourhood brawl.

Melanie Mendieta was stabbed in the stomach in the Argentine city of Jose C. Paz on the morning of 9th June.

She received a phone call from her friend who asked her to come and collect her children to protect them from the furious row she was having with her ex-boyfriend.

Upon arriving at her friend’s house, the row turned violent and other relatives and even neighbours of the former couple had intervened and taken sides, armed with sticks and stones.

Local media reported that when she went to fetch her friend’s children, she was stabbed in the stomach in the melee.

She was then taken to hospital where she succumbed to her injury shortly after she was admitted.

It transpired that the fatal blow had allegedly been delivered by the children’s paternal aunt, 30-year-old Barbara Machado.

Cops seized the knife and arrested the suspect for murder. She has since been taken into preventive custody as the investigation continues.

Melanie’s boyfriend, Joaquin, took to Facebook to write: “Care for and guide me from heaven, my love. I’ll love and remember you forever.”

A friend also took to social media to write: “F*cking murderer, I hope you die in jail. You must pay. You took the life of a girl who didn’t bother anyone.

“Justice will be served. You won’t get away with it.”