Baby dies after shop stabbing

Police guard the entrance to the shop

Police are questioning a 39-year-old man after a 10-month-old baby boy died after being stabbed in the neck in a city centre.

The attack on the child and a woman, reported to be the boy's mother, happened in a busy bakery in Scotch Street, Carlisle in Cumbria on Tuesday.

The baby, whose name has not been released, died shortly after the attack at about 1130 BST, in the Cumberland Infirmary.

Police say the boy had been slashed in the neck while with the woman inside Gregg's bakers in the city.

The 20-year-old woman was also injured in the attack.

She was being treated in hospital with a stab wound to the wrist.

Floral tributes were laid at the scene of the incident.

Police say some witnesses reported hearing screams coming from the shop, before seeing a man run off.

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said: "The child had sustained a wound to its neck.

"He was taken to hospital where he was certified dead."

Forensic experts examined the scene and the area was cordoned off.

The manager of a charity shop next door told the Carlisle News and Star newspaper that the attack had left customers spattered 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."

Neck injuries

A number of cuddly toys wrapped in cellophane were left as a steady stream of shocked bystanders paid their respects.

A spokeswoman for Cumbria Ambulance Service said: "We were called to a shop in Scotch Street following reports of a mother and baby being stabbed.

"We arrived at the scene and immediately took the baby to Cumberland Infirmary. He had serious neck injuries.

"I believe the mother had stab wounds to mainly her arms and hands. She was also taken to hospital."

The shop where the baby was stabbed stands about 100 yards from the city centre's police station in Warwick Street, and about 400 yards from Carlisle's historic castle.