Yang Lifei/ Shanghai Daily news

The young woman stabbed to death at a city ATM outlet in the early hours of Thursday morning was a creature of habit - a fact that may have led to her demise, Shanghai Daily reported.

And one of the suspects in the crime is just a boy.

Shanghai Police said yesterday the victim was a club waitress and deposited a small amount of cash at the outlet nearly every morning at the same time when she was on her way home from work.

The two male suspects, aged about 15 and 20, are still at large. Police have set up a special hotline, 6253-0247, to seek information from the public about the perpetrators.

Video tape taken by the monitor at the bank on Jiangning Road, in Jing'an District, shows one of the suspects following the victim inside, while the other kept watch outside the security door.

The 22-year-old woman, surnamed Song, was from Harbin, in northeast Heilongjiang Province.

Her parents arrived in the city yesterday morning to make funeral arrangements.

Liu Zhonglin, the father of Song's boyfriend Liu Jun, said the couple expected to get married by the end of this year. "She met my son two years ago. She usually walked home after work to save money."

Police said Song had just deposited 300 yuan (US$37.50) into the ATM before one suspect stabbed her.

"Song was off work at 2:50am every day and developed a habit of depositing cash in round numbers, usually 100 yuan or 200 yuan, mostly tips from club guests, into the ATM," said a police officer surnamed Wang. "The bank is located on the road to her home."

Police did not say what was stolen, but Liu Jun said Song's credit card was missing.

Liu Jun received the last call from Song at 3am, when she told him: "I am off work. I will be back home soon. Wait for me."

Several minutes later a pedestrian phoned city police saying he saw a woman covered in blood from a chest wound lying on her back at the outlet.

A distraught Liu Jun said: "I bought her some roast meat near our residence and waited for her at the stall. Just then a friend came running and told me an incident had occurred at that bank. I hurried there and saw a person lying on the ground covered with a cloth. I immediately recognized her white sneakers."

Police said the two suspects are both 160 centimeters tall. One of them has long hair and wore a yellowish-brown jacket, blue jeans and black sports shoes. The other has a long fringe and wore a white jacket, black woolen sweater, jeans and white shoes.