A seven-year-old girl has died after being stabbed by a stranger in a park in Bolton this afternoon.
The child, who was out enjoying the sunshine with her family for Mother’s Day, was attacked by a woman with a knife and sustained extremely serious injuries.
Despite the best efforts of her family and 999 crews, she sadly died a short while later.
A 30-year-old woman was detained by a member of the public immediately after the attack and was arrested by police at the scene, initially on suspicion of attempted murder and subsequently for murder.
The woman is not known to the family of the girl, and is understood to have mental health issues.
Assistant Chief Constable, Russ Jackson of GMP, said: “Words cannot describe how awful this attack is. The family were out in the park, enjoying the spring sun when in a totally unprovoked and random attack this little girl sustained horrendous injuries and sadly died a short while later.
“A 30-year-old woman who was not known to the family was detained by a member of the public and then arrested by the police. She is currently in custody for murder and it is expected she will be interviewed by detectives later.
“We are working to understand the motive for this completely random and brutal attack. We understand that the woman has some history of mental illness and we are working to understand if this played any part in her motive.
“We have sent specialist family liaison officers to support the family. This is a family’s worst nightmare. The incident is horrendous and I cannot begin to imagine what the family of this little girl are going through.
“We are determined to quickly understand how this came to happen, leaving a young family so distraught and so devastated in an instant.”
