A woman is fighting for her life in hospital after she was stabbed in south east London yesterday.
Scotland Yard detectives have launched a manhunt for the knifeman following the attack in Penhill Road, Bexley, at around 4.07pm.
The woman, aged in her 30s, was rushed to hospital with serious injuries. It is believed the suspect is known to her.
Officers arrived within minutes and administered first aid alongside London Ambulance Service paramedics.
In an update this morning, the Metropolitan Police told she remains in a critical condition and no arrests have been made.
A Met Police officer stands guard outside a cordoned off home in Penhill Road, Bexley, after a woman was stabbed
Part of the street was closed off as Scotland Yard detectives launched a manhunt for the knifeman
Part of the street and a home were sealed off yesterday afternoon with an officer seen standing guard.
A large black people carrier car and a black BMW remain on the driveway of the address, which is also cordoned off from the street with blue tape, outside of which a lone police officer paces.
Some residents living near to the semi-detached house where the woman – believed to be a mother with multiple children – was stabbed suggested the woman’s husband was estranged and hadn’t been seen at the property in Bexley for some time.
One local, who has lived a five or six doors down for two decades, says he believes the occupants have lived there for the same amount of time.
The man, who didn’t want to give his name, added that the couple – who he says are of white British ethnicity – that lived at the address had teenage children together, but that he hadn’t seen the husband at the home in some time.
‘I knew them to see them but I don’t know them well,’ he said. ‘I’ve never really spoken to them.
‘I have seen various people in there lately… But I haven’t seen him – the husband – for a while.
‘So I don’t know who’s living there at the moment, to be honest.’
Inspector Graham Rickard, from the local policing team in Bexley, said yesterday: ‘Officers arrived at the scene within three minutes of the initial report and provided first aid to the victim along with paramedics.
‘Sadly, she is seriously injured and has been taken to hospital in a critical condition.
‘At this early stage we believe the suspect is known to her. Officers remain at the scene and are searching for the suspect.’
The woman, aged in her 30s, was rushed to hospital with serious injuries. It is believed the suspect is known to her
Angela Waghorn, who lives just across the road, said she hadn’t seen anything like this ‘awful’ stabbing in the three decades she’s lived on the road.
‘We didn’t see nothing,’ the 78-year-old said. ‘We heard all the sirens and there’s been gas people digging up the roads around here recently, so we thought it was something to do with that.
‘It’s awful. There’s so much trouble nowadays. It’s quiet around here, although it’s quite a busy road.’
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: ‘We were called yesterday at 4.40pm to reports of an incident on Penhill Road, Bexley.
‘We sent a number of resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer, and a medic in a fast-response car. We also dispatched London’s Air Ambulance.
‘We treated a woman at the scene, before taking her to a major trauma centre.’