Detectives are appealing for witnesses after a seven-year-old girl was 'stabbed to death by a stranger' in Queen's Park.

Yesterday afternoon at 2:34pm, police were called to Queen’s Park in Bolton following reports that a child had been stabbed.

Emergency services attended and found that a seven-year-old girl had been attacked by a woman with a knife.

The girl sustained serious injuries, and despite the best efforts of her family and medical responders, she died a short while later.

A 30-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder. She was detained by a member of public immediately after the attack and was arrested by police at the scene.

Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Wesley Knights, of GMP’s Major Incident Team said: “This is an extremely tragic incident in which a young girl was brutally attacked and sadly lost her life. Our thoughts remain with her family who are being supported by specialist officers at this incredibly distressing time.

“I would like to commend the bravery of the member of public who detained the woman until police arrived at the scene and arrested her. Although we have a woman in custody, our investigation is very much ongoing.

“This incident happened in the middle of a park at a busy time of day, and I am confident that there are a number of witnesses with valuable information who can help to assist with our enquiries.

“If you have any information at all, no matter how minor you may think it is, I urge you to get in contact with police and I would also encourage anyone with any footage or images that could assist with our enquiries to upload them to scd.cctv@gmp.police.uk as soon as possible.”

Anyone with any information should contact police on 0161 856 8797 or 101 quoting incident number 1430 of the 22/03/20, or email 69851@gmp.pnn.police.uk.