suspected knife murderer was arrested on a London

Crime reporter,London(wp/es)::: A suspected knife murderer was arrested on a London bus today after one woman was fatally stabbed, another critically injured and a teenage girl seriously hurt. A man aged 40 was detained in the early hours by Met officers who boarded the bus in Streatham after a manhunt lasting several hours. Neighbours said the primary school age son of the dead woman saw his mother being stabbed to death as he got ready for his evening bath, before fleeing covered in blood. Another witness described seeing another woman shouting “please no” and “help me, it’s murder” before being grabbed by the neck and having a kitchen knife plunged into her back. Blood was still visible this afternoon on the windows and flat of a balcony where that attack took place. The horrific scenes were discovered by police when they were called to two addresses in Brixton yesterday evening. At the first, in Redlands Way, police found a woman aged 46 with stab wounds and other injuries. She was in a critical condition in hospital today. Half an hour later at another home in nearby Tilson Gardens officers found a 28-year-old woman dead from stab wounds. A 17-year-old relative of the woman was found there. She had been knifed. Both the older women are believed to be either current or ex-partners of the man arrested. At the Redlands Way stabbing a local woman who did not want to be named, told how she confronted the attacker after watching him “hack” his victim many times. The sports science graduate, aged 22, said: “I was in the park and looked up to the balcony and this guy was hitting her with a butcher’s cleaver. I shouted, ‘How can you do that?’. He said, ‘Keep out of other people’s business’. The man fled and the witness ran to the second floor to find the woman with multiple injuries. She said: “She had many stab wounds, to her back, lots of chops to her head and neck and all the fingers on her right hand were broken. She was just saying, ‘My neck’s bleeding’. ” The woman said the victim’s daughter was sitting on the sofa in a trance-like state watching CBeebies. As police sought to calm residents, some today told of the distressing scenes that they had witnessed. Sandra Scheck, 46, a mother-of-two who lives near the woman who died in Tilson Gardens, said: “The children were playing outside. Suddenly my six-year-old daughter knocked at the door shouting, ‘Mum, come and see, blood’.  “Her son then came to see me and was naked but for a towel, covered in blood and asking for his bath. He said that he saw a man with a knife and was making stabbing gestures. My daughter was in total shock at what she had witnessed and we were up all night looking after her and letting her know that everything will be okay.” The victim’s son was today understood to be under the care of the local authority. A witness also saw the attack on the 46-year-old woman as she shouted for help. Describing the incident, the woman, who did not want to be named, said: “All of sudden the kids started screaming and running off. I looked up and saw a man. He had her by the scruff of the neck. She was saying, ‘Please no’ and then ‘help me, help me, it’s murder’. The next thing I know he stuck the knife in her back, right there on the balcony. It was in the top of her back near the shoulders.” Police were today patrolling nearby streets in an attempt to reassure residents and said they believed that the arrest on the bus had ended any threat to the public. Detective Inspector Will Reynolds said: “We are confident that there are no outstanding suspects.” Officers tracked down the suspect to a bus in Leigham Court Road in Streatham shortly before 1am. He was arrested on suspicion of murder and was today in a south London police station.