Police have named a suspected knifeman after a 27-year-old mother was stabbed to death on the streets of Bradford yesterday afternoon.
Habibur Masum, 25, from the Oldham area, is being hunted by police who are appealing for members of the public to report any sightings of him.
He is wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a young woman in the Westgate area of Bradford city centre yesterday.
Masum, described as an Asian man of slim build, is pictured on CCTV wearing a duffle coat with three large horizontal lines of grey, white and black, as well as light grey tracksuit bottoms and maroon trainers.
A witness also reported seeing him wearing a grey hoody with the hood up. He is believed to have links to the Burnley and Chester areas.
According to eyewitnesses, the young woman was stabbed ‘four to five times’ in the neck while shopping with a friend in Bradford.
The mother is understood to have been pushing her baby son in his pram at the time of the fatal stabbing.
Habibur Masum, 25, (pictured) is being hunted by police who are appealing for members of the public to report any sightings of him
Masum is pictured on CCTV wearing a duffle coat with three large horizontal lines of grey, white and black, as well as light grey tracksuit bottoms and maroon trainers
A murder investigation has been launched after a woman was stabbed to death in Bradford
Police today continued to search for the knifeman, who ran away following the attack, leaving the woman, who is of Pakistani descent, dying on the pavement.
She was outside a convenience store, waiting for her friend who had gone to buy goods inside, when she was set upon.
Geo Khan, 69, who runs a fruit a veg shop, tried to resuscitate the woman, who was one of his customers.
He said: ‘I was working on Saturday and I heard screams and ran out of my shop.
‘I saw that the lady was lying face down on the pavement next to a pushchair with her five -month-old baby inside.
‘I turned her over. There was a lot of blood and I checked for a pulse, but couldn’t find one.
‘I could see the knife wounds to her neck and I tried to do CPR.
‘Her friend was screaming.’
Mr Khan said a doctor who was passing in a car stopped to help. ‘He picked up a pulse and I went to get a sheet to put over her until the ambulance came,’ he added.
The murder took place outside the Westgate International Food store, at the junction of Westgate and Drewton Road, at 3:21pm yesterday.
Today forensic officers, dressed in white suits, continued to gather evidence from the scene and a large police cordon remained in place.
Adhi Aziz, 41, owner of Venice Barber Shop, said the woman was from Oldham, Greater Manchester, and had been ‘tracked down’ by her attacker, who is thought to be known to the victim.
‘We were really busy on Saturday and didn’t see anything until all the police started to turn up,’ Mr Aziz said.
‘The lady was attacked outside the Westgate corner shop and the man that stabbed her has run off down the road.
‘My wife told me the woman was pushing a pram with a baby inside when she was stabbed, and that she came from Oldham and the man has tracked her down.’
A police cordon put in place around the scene in Westgate, Bradford yesterday
The horrific daylight killing took place in Westgate, at the junction with Drewton Road at 3.21pm on Saturday (police are pictured at the scene)
The victim was taken to hospital where she later died, West Yorkshire Police said
Police officers were also combing car parks, bushes and waste ground near the Harp of Erin pub, on Chain Street, in case the killer dumped the murder weapon as he escaped on foot.
Detective Chief Inspector Stacey Atkinson, of West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, described the stabbing as a ‘shocking incident that has happened in broad daylight.’
She said that part of the city was busy at the time and the attack was ‘witnessed by a number of people.’
DCI Atkinson said: ‘A young woman has lost her life in the most awful circumstances, and we have extensive enquiries ongoing to locate and arrest the man responsible.
‘We understand that this incident will understandably cause concern in the local community, and I would like to reassure the wider public that we are working tirelessly to investigate this horrendous crime and bring the person responsible to justice.’
She urged anyone with dashcam footage to get in touch.
In a joint statement, Bradford City ward councillors, Aneela Ahmed, Nazam Azam and Shakeela Lal, said: ‘We are deeply shocked and saddened by yesterday’s incident. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the deceased.
‘We would urge anyone who has any information relating to the incident, to contact the police.’
Bradford West MP Naz Shah, whose constituency covers the city centre, described the incident as ‘really shocking’.
She sent her condolences to the woman’s loved ones and also urged anyone with any information to get in touch with officers.