A seven-year-old girl has died after being stabbed in a 'totally unprovoked and random attack' on Mother's Day.

The victim was walking with her family in Queen's Park, near Bolton town centre, on Sunday afternoon when she was stabbed.

A 30-year-old woman, who was initailly detained by a member of the public, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody for questioning.

The woman is not known to the family of the little girl.

(Image: MEN Media)

Police say the child sustained 'horrendous' injuries in the attack and, despite the best efforts of her family and emergency services, she tragically died a short while later.

Assistant Chief Constable, Russ Jackson said: "Words cannot describe how awful this attack is.

"The family were out in the park, enjoying the spring sun when in a totally unprovoked and random attack this little girl sustained horrendous injuries and sadly died a short while later.

"A 30-year-old woman who was not known to the family was detained by a member of the public and then arrested by the police.

"She is currently in custody for murder and it is expected she will be interviewed by detectives later.

"We are working to understand the motive for this completely random and brutal attack.

"We understand that the woman has some history of mental illness and we are working to understand if this played any part in her motive.

"We have sent specialist family liaison officers to support the family. This is a family’s worst nightmare. The incident is horrendous and I cannot begin to imagine what the family of this little girl are going through.

(Image: ASP)

"We are determined to quickly understand how this came to happen, leaving a young family so distraught and so devastated in an instant."

There was a huge emergency services response following the attack, which took place at 2.34pm.

The entire 22 acre park, which lies about a quarter of a mile to the west of the town centre, was cordoned off with dozens of police officers guarding the entrances and perimeter.

Kyra Coop was in the park at the time of the stabbing.

She said: "We were sat on the benches near the railings, close to the big car park and the kids were playing when we saw two police officers running across the park as fast as they could.

"Then we saw the air ambulance hovering over and landing.

"You know when you see that it is something serious.

(Image: ASP)

"Then a girl ran over and said a little girl had been stabbed.

"The police started coming round and asking everyone to leave, and that's what we did.

"It left us really shaken up."

"We had to reassure the kids as they were really upset."

Writing on Facebook another witness said she saw CPR being performed on the girl as two adults stood over her.

Martin Sperrin, who lives near the park, added: "It's horrific. A child's life has been taken.

"This is the second stabbing in four months - someone was stabbed at a house party on my street.

"It's not a crime-ridden area, but this is the worst thing I've heard of by far."