They smashed nearby house windows and scooped up children to safety

Moments earlier a man was seen killing a cat and attacking woman in her car

This is the first picture of the man alleged to have beheaded a defenceless great-grandmother in her north London garden yesterday.

The man, named locally as would-be cage fighter Nicholas Salvadore, 25, is currently under armed guard in hospital where he is receiving treatment for injuries sustained during yesterday's lunchtime rampage.

Popular cafe owner Palmira Silva, 82, a widow described as 'such a sweet lady', was attacked and killed by a knifeman who minutes earlier was seen hopping over fences in search of a cat, which he also decapitated.

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This is the first picture of the man named as Nicholas Salvadore, currently under armed guard in hospital

Popular cafe owner Palmira Silva, 82, was beheaded in her own garden in Edmonton, north east London

Nightingale Road was still sealed off this morning, as forensics officers continues their investigations Police officers visited this top floor flat in Enfield, believed to be the home of the man held on suspicion of murder Police officers stood guard while forensics experts examined the property in Enfield this afternoon



Moments before Mrs Silva was attacked yesterday, a man was seen killing a cat and attacking a woman, smashing her car window as she cowered inside it.

Armed police officers raced to the scene in Nightingale Road, Edmonton, and ran through the street shouting at people to run for their lives.



Children screamed as police used battering rams and metal batons to smash windows and doors before dragging them to safety.



Officers were seen running down the street clutching youngsters in their arms as the man was cornered in a house a short distance away.

More than 20 officers were involved in arresting the man, who was shot with a Taser in a desperate bid to subdue him.

One officer broke their wrist in the chaos and a senior officer said police ‘put their lives on the line’ to stop the attack.



At some point, the knifeman targeted a grey Ford Focus carrying a man and a woman and struck the vehicle as they tried to escape.

Floral tributes were laid at the cafe in Church Street, Edmonton, run by Mrs Silva and her family for decades

Flowers were laid at the scene where the elderly woman - a popular local cafe owner - died in her own garden One message to Mrs Silva's family, left with flowers at the scene, reads: 'May God comfort you at this difficult time'

The woman ran away screaming after abandoning her car, which had a broken passenger window, in the road.

The suspect then ran through a house where a front door had been left open and began hopping over garden fences.

The horror began shortly after 1pm yesterday when a member of the public called 999 to report a man with a knife attacking a cat.

Witnesses said the 25-year-old man, dressed all in black, was carrying a foot-long machete, which was stained with blood.

One heard him shout 'The cats have stolen my lighter' as he hacked one animal to pieces.

Palmira Silva, 82, was pronounced dead at the scene after police found her in her garden yesterday

Forensics officers entered the property in Nightingale Road, Edmonton, after the incident As police officers cornered the suspected knifeman, others smashed windows to pull children to safety

Police launched a murder investigation after yesterday's incident which shocked the local community Scene: The incident happened at lunchtime yesterday in Edmonton, a suburb of north-east London



Another local resident said they knew the suspect well as his mother lived nearby.

They said they looked out of their window and saw the man shouting that he was looking for a cat.

They told the Mirror: 'He then went into my back garden and started chopping at my roses with the machete.

'He was going crazy because he couldn’t find it. Then he saw it in another garden and chopped its head off with the machete.'

The resident said they saw blood splattered 'everywhere' and so ran to call police.

One local said: ‘A guy with a knife was in our back garden. There was a lot of blood on the knife and he was just hacking away at stuff. It’s just unbelievable, I’m so shocked.’



Residents ran into the street as police arrived, alerted by a wave of emergency calls, but there was confusion because initially no one knew where he was. They discovered the body of Mrs Silva, whose family own a nearby cafe, in the back garden of her £500,000 semi-detached home.

Fearing the knifeman was hiding in an adjacent flat she rented out, they began smashing windows at the front to allow those inside to escape.



Members of the public gathered at the scene yesterday - Edmonton has long had a reputation for knife crime

Commander Simon Letchford said officers had smashed house windows to get people out and to safety

Myrvin Kirwan, an installer with the Virgin media company, said he came face to face with the bare-chested knifeman.

He said: 'I could hear the helicopter overhead but was getting on with my work when the customer came downstairs and said "Who's that?".

'I looked out through the glass doors into the back garden and then I saw him - bloody hands, machete, and no shirt.

'The customer shut the door within seconds, then the police came in saying "Get out of the house, get out of the house".'

He said the knifeman was black, about 5ft 10in tall, and stocky.

Mr Kirwan, who was waiting to get his van back today from within the cordoned-off stretch of road, added: 'He was looking through me.'

One workman whose van was parked in the cordoned-off street described coming face to face with the knifeman

Neighbour Sue Mahadooa, 50, said: ‘Police were running from house to house telling people to get down the road. In that house where it happened, there were two children and their mother trying to get out of the top window.

‘They broke the window and managed to pull out the two boys, aged about six and eight, but the mother could not get through it. She eventually got out through a door. They looked so frightened, like they had seen something terrible.’ Another witness said the man was ‘struggling and fighting’ with at least 20 officers as they arrested him.

Catering worker Freda Odame, 30, who saw the man, said: ‘He had a big curved knife, about the size of an arm’s length, and he was crouching as if frantically searching for something.

‘He had a crazed look in his eyes so I closed my curtains because I was scared. He was a black man, about 25 to 30, wearing all black, black T-shirt and jeans, about 5ft 10in.

‘I was just so very scared. Five minutes after I heard him screaming the police knocked on my door and told me I had to get out. I was left shaking.’

Forensic investigators examined the ground near the scene as police urged anyone with footage to contact them

Eyewitnesses had reported seeing a 'madman with a machete' in the area around lunchtime



Eyewitnesses called police after seeing a 'man with a machete' in the area around lunchtime

A taser gun was used by police in the incident and a weapon recovered from the scene, police said

The incident happened near the junction of Nightingale Road and Goodwin Road in north-east London



DCI John Sandlin said: 'This was a highly visible attack in broad daylight on a residential street'

Neighbours said the killer was a Nigerian who had been sleeping at the home of a friend in recent weeks. Others told the Evening Standard the heavily tattooed man was a cage-fighter called Nicholas Salvadore, saying he was well-known in the neighbourhood, where he has the nickname ‘Fat Nick’. One said: ‘He’s a crazy guy. He’s got a big belly and tattoos and he walks the streets sticking his fingers up at people like Somalis.’ Another woman who lives nearby said a man she believed to be the suspect warned her the police were looking for him a week ago. She said: 'I've seen the guy before, I'm sure of it. Someone came up to me last week, I think it was him, and said "The police are looking for me, but they can't find me, I'm going to hide".' A police officer laid a floral tribute brought by a member of the public to the police cordon in Edmonton today Myrvin Kirwan, pictured, looked out of a window and saw the attacker in the garden with a bloodstained machete The same woman witnessed the start of yesterday's rampage. She said: 'I seen the man pull up in his car at the beginning of the street. I heard a big vroom and then he got out. 'He was walking up to the street, with a machete in his hands, and going in people's front gardens and he started shouting and screaming, and really going crazy. Then all the police turned up.' A pensioner wept after delivering roses, which were accepted by an officer at the cordon. 'I knew her and I worked for 10 years at a cigarette company with her son - I know him as Reno,' said Sylvia Lewis, who declined to give her age. 'I think what happened was downright disgusting. She was a lovely lady, she didn't have a bad bone in her body. 'To get to 82 then have that happen, she didn't deserve that. Her son must be devastated.'

A neighbour who knew Mrs Silva, whose husband Domenico died several years ago, said she was ‘such a sweet lady’ who still worked every day in Silva's Cafe on Church Street, Edmonton.



Police raced to the scene in Nightingale Road, Edmonton, and found Mrs Silva collapsed in a garden



Senior borough police and detectives from the Met's Homicide and Serious Crime Command at the scene

Nightingale Road is a typical suburban street in Edmonton with an average house value of £310,000

Scotland Yard said today that a man arrested on suspicion of murder was still in custody



Aerial images show police and forensics officers at the crime scene yesterday afternoon



Eyewitnesses reported seeing a 'madman with a machete', while others said they saw him behead a cat

The woman said: ‘I think after her husband died that’s what kept her going. I was speaking to her yesterday. She was weeding in the front garden, she loved her gardening. I said, “You’ve been doing such hard work, your flowers are beautiful”.’

A woman who works near the cafe said Mrs Silva had run it for decades, and had a reputation for cooking good food.

She said: 'It used to be Silva's Restaurant, and served really good food. Then her husband died a few years ago and it was taken over by other members of her family, and became a cafe.

'Mrs Silva worked there nearly every day - it was unusual if you didn't see her in there, working away in her apron.'



Commander Simon Letchford said there was no suggestion the attack was linked to terrorism.

Police staged an emergency evacuation yesterday, smashing windows to get people out

‘Officers did everything they could to make other people safe and put their lives on the line to make sure this individual did not cause further harm,’ he said.

A man arrested on suspicion of murder was being held under armed guard in hospital last night. He was being treated for cuts he suffered during his arrest.

The Met said the incident has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Edmonton has long had a reputation for knife crime, which has led to its being nicknamed Shanktown - gang members call knives 'shanks'.

Edmonton is known as 'Shanktown' because of its reputation for crimes using knives, or 'shanks'

Edmonton Green, where Mrs Silva died yesterday, is one of the highest-ranking wards in the borough for serious youth violence, where rival gangs are attractive to youths of Turkish and African origin.



Yesterday's beheading came just 12 hours after a 51-year-old man died following a street fight two miles away in Enfield, at the junction of Green Street and Westmoor Road.

Police launched a murder investigation after the man suffered head injuries in a street fight in the early hours of yesterday.

This afternoon, a criminology expert warned of the dangers of seeing terror videos such as the recent two films of beheadings released by ISIS, particularly on the vulnerable.

Dr Liz Yardley, deputy director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University, said: 'Clearly many people are already linking this to the recent murders of US journalists by Isis but it is far too early to draw any conclusions given the limited amount of information in the public domain.

'We do, however, need to start considering the extent to which the widespread availability of Isis videos featuring graphic images of executions affect those who view them.



'This is not to say that watching such content will automatically result in people going out and committing similar acts, but we do need to think carefully about the impact of these videos upon people around us, particularly those who are vulnerable.'





