Great grandmother Margaret Twist, 69, who had lived in Compton Row for three years with her daughter, Georgina Gawthorpe, 46, said: "There are always arguments going on around here, so we really did not think much of it and don't like to interfere.

"But then shortly after 3.30pm we heard a loud, unusual scream, a piercing scream, which sounded serious. I heard someone shout loudly with emotion: 'My baby, my baby'.

"Someone I know rang the police. I don't really know the family involved. The ambulance arrived first, then the police. It is all very upsetting. We cannot believe it."

Nearby, a Polish shop selling food from Eastern Europe, was open for trade.

An assistant at the Zapraszamy Shop in Sutherland Mount said: "There are lots of Polish people living around here. Everyone knows each other."

Shopkeeper Chan Singh, who runs C and R Newsagents at Sutherland Mount, said: "We could do with CCTV on these streets for everyone's protection.

"It is an area of real antisocial problems."