PEOPLE living near Plumstead Common described how they tried to help a woman who was stabbed in a seemingly random attack this morning (September 5).

Residents said the 30-year-old had left the Co-Op store on Plumstead Common Road and was walking along the grass when a man tried to slit her throat shortly before 10am.

When she pulled away, she was knifed multiple times in her leg, before her attacker dropped his knife and jumped onto a bus, witnesses claimed.

Steve Best, 49, said: "Someone told me they had seen him before and he looked like he had mental health problems.

"He tried to come up behind her and slit her throat, and then he's stabbed her from behind into her legs.

"Then he walked over and dropped the knife into a bin."

He added: "Someone coming by knew first aid and some blokes in a van got out their first aid kit.

"Then my partner came back to take some old towels over to stop the blood.

"They were telling her to hold it firm, keep the pressure on to stop the bleeding."

The woman, who neighbours say is Hungarian, was taken to hospital as a priority suffering from two stab wounds to the leg. She is said to be in a stable condition.

Forensics officers worked at the cordoned off scene where two bags of shopping could still be seen lying on the floor. A knife was also recovered.

Steve Peacock, 59, said: "When I first saw it I though she'd been hit by a car or something.

"She was just lying there with blood everywhere and there were three or four people on phones calling ambulances and attending to her and trying to stop the bleeding."

Mr Best said: "There are lots of strange characters hanging around the common recently, some of them mutter to themselves as people go by."

A 47-year-old man was arrested shortly afterwards on a bus on suspicion of GBH and robbery. He has been taken to a south London police station.

Officers from Greenwich CID are investigating.

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