New Zealand police investigating the murder of an Indian taxi driver in Auckland appealed Tuesday to the city's Asian communities for help in identifying the passenger who stabbed him to death in a frenzied attack.

They said inquiries in the city, where nearly 30 percent of the population of 438,000 is Asian, showed that many people were not aware of the murder of Hiren Mohini, 39, who was killed in the early hours of Jan 31.

They released a photograph of a knitted dark cap with a large white logo that they said was found with a blood-stained shoulder bag they had previously publicised as belonging to the killer. Police said they believe the attacker was caught on a closed circuit tv camera before he got into the cab.

Mohini migrated to New Zealand from Mumbai six years ago to give his wife and two daughters aged 5 and 3 a safe place to live.

The government has promised an inquiry into the safety of taxis following calls from drivers to make security cameras and passenger screens mandatory inside cabs.