The Hamilton Police homicide unit is investigating after four people were stabbed in the central city Tuesday, including a baby, her mother and a good Samaritan.



"We are holding the scene," said Acting Staff Sergeant Andrew Toms on Wednesday morning. "We will be there most of the day."



Toms was unable to give an update as to the condition of the victims. He did describe the incident as an "attempted murder."



Eastbourne Avenue residents thought there had been a car accident when they rushed out of their homes to find four people bleeding on the street and a minivan crunched against a pickup truck.



But, in the chaotic moments that followed, they realized there had been a multiple stabbing — the driver of the minivan a random victim who had tried to protect a woman and her 18-month-old baby.



When neighbour Jeanne Dacey went outside to investigate around 4 p.m., she was told a child was injured.



"I got down there and I could see all the blood. I ran home and grabbed towels and my husband grabbed the first aid kit," she said.



The pair rushed down Eastbourne Avenue, between Cumberland and Delaware avenues, where a group of other neighbours had huddled around a young woman and her baby, both covered in blood. The frantic mother — identified as Devona, 18 — was bleeding heavily from gashes on her arm and face.



The baby — identified as Destiny — was also bleeding, with deep gashes on her ear, neck and leg, they said. Neighbours cradled the baby in a blanket, putting pressure on her wounds, while they waited for EMS.



A third man — whom Devona told the group was her stepfather — had collapsed on a lawn nearby, his shirt soaked in blood from a deep cut across his neck.



A knife lay on another lawn nearby.



Devona told Dacey she and her baby had fled a Holton Avenue South home around the corner, hopping into a van as their stepfather chased after them — a series of events confirmed by an emergency official.



Another neighbour, Michael Portman-Secuur, said he was told the three had spilled out of a blue minivan that had crashed into a pickup truck parked on the side of the road nearby.



A fourth person, the driver — a stranger to the other three — was also at the scene, with slashes on his hands.



All four were taken to hospital with knife wounds.



Family confirmed Tuesday night from the hospital that Devona and Destiny were in stable condition.



Part of Holton Street South was also blocked off Tuesday evening. Police were seen photographing a Bible and a handful of scattered pages lying on the road.



The crime scene is being held overnight, police said.



The suspect has been arrested and is being guarded in hospital.



Charges are pending.



Police did not provide further details about the incident Tuesday night.



Portman-Secuur shook his head as he watched officers photograph his wife's blood-splattered clothing Tuesday evening through a criss-cross of police tape blocking off the road.



"It's such a busy street, there are so many kids," he said, adding it was lucky the pair had come down family-filled Eastbourne Avenue.



"If they would have gone the other way, into the wooded area (south of the street), who knows …"