Man charged with child destruction following attack on pregnant London graduate in which pair pushed her to the ground and repeatedly kicked and stamped on her stomach

A woman is in a critical condition after two men pushed her to the ground and stamped on her stomach, causing her to lose her unborn child in what police called an “abhorrent and vile attack”.

The 21-year-old victim, who has been identified as Malorie Bantala, was 32 weeks pregnant when she was attacked in Peckham, south-east London, on Monday evening. She was walking in Talfourd Place, a quiet residential area, when she was approached by two men wearing motorcycle helmets, police said.

They pushed her to the ground and repeatedly kicked and stamped on her stomach before running off. A member of the public called police and the victim was taken to a hospital in south London where she lost the foetus, according to police. She remained in a critical condition in intensive care on Wednesday.

A man was charged with child destruction following an attack on a heavily pregnant woman, Scotland Yard said early on Thursday morning. Kevin Wilson, 20, was remanded in custody to appear at Camberwell Green magistrates court.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Talfourd Place in Peckham, south London. Photograph: Damien Gayle for the Guardian

Scotland Yard said there was a “strong likelihood” the men were trying to kill the baby and the attack was being treated as “akin to murder”.

A 20-year-old man from south London has been arrested on suspicion of child destruction and grievous bodily harm and is being questioned by police.

On Wednesday, London Ambulance Service (LAS) faced criticism because the victim was forced to wait more than an hour for an ambulance that never arrived.

LAS has apologised after admitting police were forced to take the 21-year-old to hospital themselves when, after an hour and 10 minutes of waiting, the ambulance had still not attended the scene.

A spokeswoman said: “We were called at 8.16pm on 15 June to Talfourd Place, SE15. We are very sorry that we were unable to send an ambulance before we were cancelled by the police at 9.25pm and are now looking into the circumstances of what happened.”

She confirmed that the LAS did not attend and that police officers took the woman to a south London hospital.

The victim’s mother, Ida Bantala, has told how she was upstairs in her flat in Peckham when someone came screaming to her door, saying: “‘Malorie’s mum, Malorie’s mum, come quickly!’ I rushed down and there she was just lying on the pavement with the police.

“She was just crying and crying. If you see your daughter like that, it’s awful. Words can’t explain it,” she told reporters. “Then, about an hour later maybe, they took her to hospital and I went with her. She was talking to the police for a long time.”

She said the family had lived in the area since 2001 and had never encountered any trouble. Her daughter had been working since finishing university, she said, and was excited about having the baby.

“I wanted to be a grandma. She was so happy and now she is sick in hospital,” she said. “I had seen a man hanging around with a crash helmet but I had no idea that it would turn out like this or it was anything to do with Malorie. The police have been good – they have to catch whoever did this to my precious daughter.”

DCI Robert Pack, from the Metropolitan police’s homicide and major crime command, is leading the investigation.

“This was a truly abhorrent and vile attack on a heavily pregnant woman who has now, tragically, lost her baby,” he said. “The suspects were distinctive in their crash helmets and we would appeal for anyone who saw them either before the attack or running from the scene to please come forward and contact us.”

He later told Sky News: “[A suspect] has been been arrested on GBH [grievous bodily harm] with intent to the young mum-to-be herself, and also child destruction for what happened to her unborn, sadly passed away, foetus.”

Pack said he had never seen a crime like it. “It’s an indication of how seriously the Metropolitan police are taking this that it’s been passed to my team, the homicide and serious crime command. We are treating this with all the resources and seriousness of a murder investigation.”

In 2000 a man who stamped on his pregnant girlfriend’s abdomen was convicted of manslaughter after her baby was born alive then died.

Monday’s attack took place on a patch of ground metres away from a children’s playground and between two council blocks, one of which is home to the Bantala family.

A police cordon, which had been in place earlier this week at the scene, has now been taken down. A woman who lives in the same block as the Bantalas said the attack had come as a shock. “Although it’s a council estate, there is generally never any trouble and it has felt safe living here.”