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Man, 26, arrested after woman walking with her toddler stabbed

A 26-year-old man has been arrested after a woman with a toddler was stabbed during an attempted robbery.

Christel Stainfield-Bruce, 36, was pushing her three-year-old son in a buggy when she was attacked in Islington, north London, just before 5pm last Friday.

The suspect was arrested on Thursday morning on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and is in custody at Holborn Police station.

Following the stabbing, the mother told Sky News she thought it was a "gang initiation" after she refused to hand over her phone.

Police said a male suspect aged 14 to 16 approached the victim asking for directions.

After giving him the information, he asked for her mobile and stabbed her in the back of the leg when she refused to hand it over.

He then fled the scene and the victim was taken to a central London hospital where her injuries were treated. They were not life-threatening or changing.

Ms Stainfield-Bruce told the Sky News she was walking home on "just a normal Friday after work".

"I wasn't aware of anyone behind me, just pushing my son, he's asleep in the buggy," she said.

She said a teenager came up behind her and asked her for directions to the Emirates stadium.

She said: "I stopped to gesture in the right direction, looked at him [he was] just a young boy.

"I didn't necessarily feel any fear at that moment and then he said 'give me your phone' and I said 'no' and then he just reached around to the back of my left thigh and stabbed me in the back of it - so so quick."

Ms Stainfield-Bruce said the attack felt "specific" and "as if that's what he was aiming for".

She said the attack "shocked and surprised" her, but added it "didn't feel like a robbery".

"It felt to me like the goal was to stab me," she said, adding that she thought it could be "gang initiation" because he didn't try very hard "to get any financial gain".

Ms Stainfield-Bruce said doctors told her the wound was "quite deep" and about three inches wide and "quite clean" so it was "obviously quite a sharp knife".