Father quizzed after baby stabbed to death

The father of a baby boy who was murdered in a British high street shop was continuing to be questioned by police today.

Locals in the English town of Carlisle named the 10-month-old victim as Hassan Martin who was in a Carlisle bakery with his mother Lorna, 20, when he was stabbed in the neck.

They said the baby’s father was called Shajan Kabir, 39, who is believed to be from Bangladesh.

The child, who has not been named by police, was attacked in the Greggs bakery in Scotch Street at 11.15am yesterday.

Men in the shop overpowered his attacker and officers from the city’s central police station around 100 yards away were quickly on the scene.

The baby was taken to Cumberland Infirmary where he was pronounced dead.

His mother suffered injuries to her wrist but they were not thought to be life-threatening and she was also treated at hospital.

The manager of a charity shop next door told the Carlisle News and Star newspaper that customers in the bakery had been splashed with blood.

She said: “I was working on the till and just heard screaming outside.

“I thought it was kids fooling about but when I went outside a man came out of the shop covered in blood.

“Police arrived and were talking to the mother, who was hysterical.

“There were a few customers in the shop at the time and all of them were covered in blood. One customer came out of the shop and he was in tears. He was covered from head to toe in blood.”

A police spokesman said: “At just after 11.15am, we received a report that a child had been stabbed.

“The child had suffered a stab wound to its neck and was taken to Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle where he was certified dead.

“A woman aged 20 and from Carlisle was also taken to hospital with cuts to her wrist, but her condition is not believed to be life-threatening.

“A 39-year-old man from the Carlisle area has been arrested in connection with the incident.”

Peter Woodall, spokesman for Greggs, said: “There will have been about three members of staff in the shop and they are clearly upset.

“We are supporting them any way we can and they are receiving counselling.”

Mr Woodall added that the shop would remain closed while police carried out forensic tests.

A spokeswoman for Cumbria Ambulance Service said the baby had suffered serious neck injuries, adding: “I believe the mother had stab wounds to mainly her arms and hands. She was also taken to hospital.”

Scotch Street is the main pedestrianised shopping area in the city, a former Roman stronghold on the Scottish border.

The attack took place close to the Eden Valley fish restaurant.

Owner Ahmet Arabi, 37, said: “I saw the ambulance and a woman coming out of the shop with bandages around her wrist. She got into the ambulance.

“There was a lot of people gathered round the shop. A security guard told me that a young boy had been badly injured.”

One of the many people who paid tribute was the mother of another 10-month-old baby boy.

Natalie Brown, 18, of Upperby, Carlisle, came to the scene of the tragedy with her infant son Euan Blaylock.

She told PA News: “Lots of people were ringing me up asking me if it was Euan and if I was OK. And I just started crying.

“I just came here to show my respect even though we didn’t know him.

“I wrote on my note ‘So sorry, may your little angel rest in the arms of the Lord’.”