Woman (82) found ‘beheaded’ in London back garden

A woman has been found beheaded in a back garden in north London.

The victim was found collapsed at an address in Nightingale Road in Edmonton just after 1pm today.

Armed police arrested a 25-year-old man on suspicion of murder, Scotland Yard said, with one officer suffering a broken wrist during the arrest. Taser stun guns were also fired.

The woman was named as Palmira Silva (82), who is believed to be of Italian descent. Scotland Yard said that while formal identification has yet to take place, its officers were satisfied that she was the victim .

Police said they did not believe there was a terrorist motive, with the Metropolitan Police homicide and major crime command leading the investigation.

Detective Chief Inspector John Sandlin said: "This was a highly visible attack in broad daylight on a residential street. I can understand why this may cause people concern. However, we are confident that we are not looking for anyone else at this stage."

He said it was too early to speculate on what the motive behind this attack was but was “confident, based on the information currently available to me, that it is not terrorist-related”.

Police officers distracted the man to stop him attacking anyone else while they evacuated houses, Metropolitan Police Commander Simon Letchford said.

He told reporters: “There were a number of people resident. What we do know is that this male has gone along a number of the back gardens of this premises.

“Officers who attended the scene have evacuated a number of those people from those premises to make them safe.

“During that period they distracted the man from carrying out any further attacks.”

He added that officers had smashed house windows to get people out after the man had been “cornered” in a house.

He continued: “They (the officers) did everything they could to evacuate people from those premises and that clearly they were aware of what had happened and they put themselves in extreme danger to protect the public, to ensure that his behaviour was stopped as soon as it possibly could be.”

Cmdr Letchford confirmed that police were called to the scene by initial reports of a man attacking an animal, a cat or a dog. A weapon was recovered at the scene but he would not reveal what it was. The arrested man is currently in hospital being treated for injuries suffered when he was arrested, he said.

Police will then determine when he can be interviewed. Cmdr Letchford said they were still trying to establish the attacker’s motive.

PA