A community has rallied around a woman in her 80s after she was stabbed in an attack in which a man was killed.
Metropolitan Police officers were called to Albany Parade in Brentford, west London, at around 7.50pm on Friday and found a man, believed to be aged 20, dead at the scene.
The elderly woman, named locally as Betty Walsh, was found with stab wounds and taken to hospital.
Her condition is described as serious but not life-threatening.
Gerhard Peleschka, the manager of local pub The Griffin, described her as a “Brentford legend”.
He said: “Betty used to work here on match days during the busiest times.
“She was here until 1978, she was the best barmaid you’d ever meet.
“She knew everyone, everyone loved her. People knew her for years and years, she’s a Brentford legend.
“What happened yesterday is just so tragic, because she is so well-known.”
He said Ms Walsh, originally from Ireland, is a mother of seven.
Police at the scene in Albany Parade in Brentford, where a man has been killed and a pensioner is in a critical condition in hospital after they were stabbed in a street in west London.
Dominic Lipinski
She is “fit as a fiddle”, he said, adding: “It just blows your mind what happened to her.”
He added the incident was unusual in a close-knit community where “everyone knows everyone”, and described it as “an absolutely safe area”.
Earlier, Ms Walsh’s grandson left a bouquet of flowers at the scene.
One of her sons, who did not give his name, arrived shortly afterwards. He declined to speak to reporters, except to say: “This is England. This is society.”
The Met said a man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder on Saturday morning and he remains in custody at a London police station.
Police said there is no evidence linking the stabbings to terrorism and no-one else is being sought over the incident.
Inquiries are ongoing to establish if anyone involved was known to each other.
