Girl saw father stabbed to death

The little girl was left standing in horror as paramedics desperately tried to save her father's life on the pavement in west Croydon, south London. The pair were travelling to the nearby Mayday Hospital where her baby brother had been born.

Detectives said the 26-year-old victim became involved in an argument with a second man, believed to be a former colleague, before the fatal blow was struck. They are hunting two teenagers wearing hooded tops who fled the scene and may have been involved in the scuffle.

Detective Chief Inspector Cliff Lyons, who is leading the investigation, said the circumstances of the murder were "particularly tragic".

He said: "This was a shocking attack in a public place in the early evening. The victim's three year-old daughter was with him when he was attacked, though fortunately she wasn't physically injured. Even more tragically, his partner had given birth to a son just that morning."

A security guard at a nearby office described how he took the little girl away. He said: "I said she shouldn't be watching something like that. I asked around to see whose child she was and somebody said she was the victim's, so I took her away into our building."

He said that the three-year-old was "in shock, her eyes were wide open". She was muttering under her breath occasional words like "mum" and "mayday". The guard watched paramedics treating the victim for a long time before the man died in front of his eyes.

He added: "Everybody else was in shock, she was so small, you didn't quite realise she was there. I just did what everybody else would do."

Emergency services were called to busy London Road, west Croydon, shortly after 6.15pm on Thursday night. The victim, who was originally from Ghana, was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.

A 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder after handing himself in at a south London police station. He remains in police custody.