Mother allegedly stabbed children in Blue Mountains attack, killing one
A witness described the scene where a mother, found in bushes screaming and covered in blood, allegedly attacked her three children, leaving one dead and two critically injured.
A woman is accused of stabbing her three young children, killing a five-year-old boy and critically injuring his two siblings, in a violent incident in the Blue Mountains on Sunday afternoon. Police allege the 42-year-old mother then turned the weapon on herself.
The family was discovered by two cyclists and a passing motorist on Waratah Road in Valley Heights. A local resident, Julie Sukkar, witnessed the aftermath.
"The woman on the ground was yelling, screaming and thrashing about," Sukkar told Daily Mail Australia. "She was covered in blood and had some really bad injuries."
Sukkar observed the three children, all aged five and under, inside a white four-wheel-drive vehicle parked on a vacant block. "The children were quiet. They were not screaming or crying. They were not moving," she recalled. "That was hard to see."
Police arrived quickly, initially handcuffing the mother before removing the restraints as she was taken by ambulance. Sukkar praised the actions of the strangers who first stopped to help, suggesting their intervention may have saved the surviving children's lives.
Detectives have stated the family has no known links to the Blue Mountains area and was not previously known to police. The children's father was reportedly at work when the incident occurred.
Police are treating the boy's death as a domestic violence incident and consider the mother to be the sole suspect. They allege the mother's wounds were self-inflicted. She remains in critical condition and has not yet been interviewed by investigators.
Sukkar expressed sympathy for the mother, stating, "I felt really sad for her and for the kids as well. To be in that state of mind, I couldn't even imagine it."