The unborn baby of a pregnant woman stabbed to death at her home in Croydon, south London, is in critical condition after being delivered by emergency services at the murder scene.
Kelly Mary Fauvrelle, 26, was around eight months pregnant when she was attacked in Raymead Avenue, Thornton Heath, on Saturday morning, according to the BBC.
She was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency services, but paramedics were able to deliver her unborn child, which was still alive, at the scene, rushing it to a hospital where it is reportedly in “critical condition”.
“This is a horrific incident in which a young mother has lost her life and her child is critically ill,” said Detective Chief Inspector Mick Norman, of the Metropolitan Police Force’s Serious Crime Command, in an official statement.
“Our sympathies go out to her devastated family; they are being supported by specially trained officers following this awful event, and I would ask that they are left alone at this time as they come to terms with the enormity of what has happened.”
Officers have arrested a 29-year-old male on suspicion of murder, who is currently being detained in a south London police station, while a previously arrested 37-year-old male has been released under investigation pending further enquiries.
Police urge that anyone with information about the crime “should contact police on the dedicated Incident Room number of 0208 7214005, or ring 101 quoting CAD 1358/29 Jun or alternatively Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
In comments to the Mail on Sunday, a neighbour said of the incident, “It was pretty loud, it woke us up. We heard screaming, and then we saw police and paramedics. Later on I saw another woman come out and just collapse on the street.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who has received substantial criticism for the way knife crime in the British capital has appeared to slide out of control during his tenure, conceded that “horrific murders in the home like this show the scale of the problem we face.”
However, in a recent exchange with London Assembly members he insisted that the metropolis is safer than when he took office, despite recorded crime statistics to the contrary.
“So, gun crime is up, robbery is up, knife crime is up, rape is up, taking vehicle motor vehicles offences is up [sic], residential burglary is up, knife crime with injury is up, knife crime with injury and robbery is up, and you think, honestly, that London is more safe now than when you take over as Mayor of London?” asked one assembly member.
“I do,” Khan repeated bluntly.
“Please God let this child survive,” tweeted Shaun Bailey, who the Tory Party will be running against Sadiq Khan in the city’s next mayoral election.
“Please let this baby’s family come together to free it from this most heinous arrival to our world.”