Police question couple after two children stabbed to death

Police in England were tonight questioning a couple after two young children died from suspected stab wounds and a baby was seriously injured.

A five-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl died in hospital last night after being found injured at their home in Carshalton, south-east London.

A six-month-old girl was found in the same house with stab injuries and is seriously ill in hospital.

The couple, a 39-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman, are believed to be parents of all three children and are being held at police stations in the capital.

Neighbours described paramedics carrying the children out of the two-bedroom detached house in Park Lane just after 10.30pm last night.

One told of an “horrific” scene as paramedics tried to revive a “limp little body”.

The woman, who did not wish to be named, saw a “tiny bundle” carried out of the suburban home

“It was obviously a child,” she said. “It’s horrific for something like this to happen here.”

Neighbour Jim Duffy saw a woman, seemingly unhurt, leaving the house with blood stains on her back.

He said: “We saw them bringing a child out and then about half-an-hour later they came out with another child.

“Then a woman who had blood on her dress, on her back. She was dressed in Indian style clothes and they took her into an ambulance, not a police car.

“About half an hour later a chap came out. He was quite calm and the police were being quite calm with him. They didn’t handcuff him at first and he sat in the front of the police van making a telephone call.

“They later put him in the cage at the back of the van and he seemed to have some sort of argument with the police but he didn’t look like he was resisting arrest.”

The two older children were taken to hospital but both died within 90 minutes of the police call. The girl died at 11.41pm and the boy fifteen minutes later.

The £300,000 two-bedroom property was taped off today as officers carried out an examination of the scene.

Neighbours said the couple were thought to be from the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka and had moved to the suburb in the last year.

Neighbour Pam Thomas said: “When we heard the fire engines last night I looked out and I saw a paramedic carrying the baby scooped up in his arms.

“Next they came out with the children. There were so many ambulances, five or six, that I was expecting them to bring out more people.

“But when the man and the woman just walked out, quite normally, I couldn’t believe it.”

Sen Gupta, who lives opposite, described seeing friends or relatives crying and screaming when they learnt of the deaths.

“When it happened last night a group of people, also Sri Lankan, came to the house very soon after the police arrived.

“They were pacing up and down outside for a while. They said they had lived in the house with the couple but moved out because of problems. I don’t know what kind.

“The police came out and spoke to them. They must have been telling them the children had died because they started screaming and crying.”

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said officers were called to the house at 10.30pm last night.

“Police and London Ambulance attended, and found three children suffering serious injuries, believed to be stab wounds,” he said.

“We believe we know the identity of the deceased. However, we await formal identification and confirmation that all family members have been informed.”

Post-mortem examinations on the two victims are expected to be carried out early next week.