A TEN-month-old baby was stabbed to death yesterday as his terrified mum fought in vain to save him from a frenzied knife attack in a busy town centre.

Shocked witnesses told last night how the 20-year-old clutched the youngster to her chest as the assailant rained down blows with a knife.

Shoppers who saw the attack jumped on the knifeman and tried to stop him. Afterwards they were left covered in blood. Several were in tears.

But their desperate attempts to stop the assault were in vain. The mother's wrist was slashed and the little boy suffered a fatal stab wound in the neck.

Both were taken to the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, where the baby was confirmed dead on arrival. The mother's injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

Last night detectives were still trying to establish what prompted the horrific attack that took place in the centre of Carlisle, Cumbria, yesterday morning.

Witnesses said the mother was pushing her son through the busy shopping street when she was approached by a man screaming and brandishing a knife.

As the attacker lashed out the mum snatched up her son from his pushchair suffering stab wounds to her own arms and hands in her desperation to protect the baby.

Trying to escape the vicious attack, she ran into a nearby Greggs bakery store.

But the man simply followed the pair into the shop and continued the remorseless attack.

The manageress of the Shelter charity shop next door said: "I was working on the till and just heard screaming outside.

"I thought it was kids fooling about but when I went outside a man came out of the bakery shop covered in blood.

"There were a few customers in the shop at the time and all of them were covered in blood.

"One was in tears, he was covered from head to toe in blood."

A pensioner who was walking past said: "I just saw two people inside Greggs. One was bending down over the other, he had a knife.

"Then the screaming started. It was obvious something really terrible had happened."

The attack began outside the Eden Valley Fish restaurant on Scotch Street at 11.15am.

Owner Ahmet Arabi, 37, said: "There was a guy holding a knife and the next minute the woman's hands were bleeding and she was holding the baby boy, he was hurt."

As customers restrained the attacker police arrived to arrest him while paramedics desperately fought to save the little boy.

A shop assistant said: "The little boy was unconscious and all wrapped up in blankets as they put him into the ambulance.

"He looked so small and vulnerable - I can't believe anyone could be so wicked to stab him as he was being pushed through the town by his mother."

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said: "Just after 11.15am the police received a report of a child having been stabbed on Scotch Street in the centre of Carlisle.

"The little boy, aged ten months, sustained a wound to his neck and was later certified dead at the Cumberland Infirmary.

"A woman aged 20 and from Carlisle was taken to hospital with a cut to her wrist but her injuries are not thought to be life threatening.

"A 39-year-old man from the Carlisle area has been arrested."