Baby stabbed to death in his pram

A 10-month-old baby was today stabbed to death in his pushchair in a horrific city centre attack.

Screaming shoppers saw the child and his mother attacked by a knifeman as they entered a bakery. Witnesses described how the attacker came running down the street and rushed into the shop where he launched his attack before being grabbed.

The 20-year-old woman was slashed with the knife and the child was stabbed in the neck, dying from his injuries despite frantic efforts by paramedics to save him.

Women staff at the bakery grabbed the 39-year-old man and wrestled him to the ground, where they held him until police arrived moments later.

One witness said: "I just saw the aftermath of what happened, but it was horrific. The little boy was unconscious and all wrapped up in blankets as they put him into the ambulance. He looked so small and vulnerable.''

As the mother was taken to hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries, one witness told how customers came out of the shop in tears.

A police spokesman said that a 39-year-old man had been arrested. Police sources said: "This was not a random attack. The mother and the man we have arrested know each other."

The attack happened at about 11.15am as the mother was taking her baby son shopping in a pushchair in Carlisle city centre.

Ahmet Arabi, 37, who owns a fish and chip shop opposite Greggs bakery, said: "I was in the kitchen when I heard a commotion and looked outside. There was a guy holding a knife and the next minute the woman's hands were bleeding and she was holding the baby boy. He was hurt. I saw her lying on the pavement with blood pouring from her wrist. I couldn't see the little boy at first. Then he was being carried past the window. Later I saw someone put flowers down and it made me fear the worst."

A spokesman for Cumbria police said: "Just after 11.15am the police received a report of a child having been stabbed on Scotch Street in the centre of Carlisle. The little boy, aged 10 months, sustained a wound to his neck and was later certified dead at the Cumberland Infirmary."