Food delivery riders are demanding better safety protections while working after a man was charged in the stabbing murder of one of their colleagues.

Police say Feng Jianming, 47, and another rider confronted a man tampering with their bikes in Melbourne’s city centre on Friday night.

A fight broke out and the man, a 51-year-old, is alleged to have stabbed both riders.

Feng died at the scene. The second rider, 34, suffered serious injuries and remained in hospital on Monday.

The incident has sparked an outpouring of support from Feng’s family and other delivery riders, including those who knew him personally.

Local food delivery rider Brandon, who did not provide his surname, said he would take fewer night jobs after the horrifying incident.

“I definitely feel more worried when I’m out delivering food, particularly when riding alone at night or passing through areas where I feel unsafe,” he told the Melbourne Chinatown Business Association, which translated it from Chinese.

Brandon said he and Feng weren’t particularly close but would greet each other on the regular occasions they crossed paths while out on jobs.

“He was one of those familiar faces you expect to see every day,” Brandon said.

“To suddenly realise that you’ll never see him again is incredibly difficult to accept.”

Brandon said he had experienced some concerning incidents while at work, including a confrontation with a man who tried to take off with his bike.

“I now realise how dangerous that confrontation could have been,” he said.

Feng, originally from China’s Shaanxi Province, had been in Australia for about nine years. His wife, Xu, their four parents and two children all relied on his Australian income to get by at home.

In the days following his death, mourners left floral tributes and handwritten notes near the state library, dedicated to his memory. Some cards on the flowers expressed sympathy for Feng’s family, while others included statements such as “City of Criminal”, “Safe Street for Every Person” and “Asian Lives Matter”.

A GoFundMe fundraiser set up by the Melbourne Chinatown Business Association had raised almost $390,000 by Monday morning to help Feng’s family with emergency travel and funeral expenses.

Association head Christina Zhao said Feng’s death was weighing heavily on his colleagues and gig worker communities in China, Japan and Korea.

Brandon wants better protection from delivery platforms for their workers, including an end to penalties for abandoning orders when they feel unsafe.

“Nobody should have to lose their life just to earn a living,” he said.

Andrew Copolov from the Melbourne Gig Workers Hub said it wasn’t the first incident involving a delivery rider.

“This is a community that’s really exposed,” he told 774 ABC Melbourne.

“They’re out in the street, they don’t have spaces of their own and that’s a real shame, something that ought to be fixed.”

Food delivery company HungryPanda said it was assisting Feng’s family with visa arrangements, funeral expenses, financial support and insurance.

The Transport Workers Union said HungryPanda may have failed to properly assess and control risks to its workers.

“HungryPanda has legal obligations to do whatever it can to minimise risk as food delivery riders carry out their work,” national secretary Michael Kaine said on Monday.

“It must urgently confirm whether it has done this, and we are calling on WorkSafe to investigate whether it has failed in its duties here, as we have seen in the past with its failure to report a workplace death.”

The 51-year-old man was expected to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday after being charged with murder and intentionally causing serious injury.

-AAP