A WOMAN was stabbed to death in a busy south London street after a knife was stolen from a local butcher’s shop, police said today.

Another woman was slashed on the hand in the attack while a third has been arrested, Scotland Yard said.

An employee at The Rose pub in Broadway, Bexleyheath, south east London, said a blade had been taken from the British Meat Market ahead of the killing.

The woman, who did not give her name, said: “I didn’t see what happened but I think one of the girls stole a knife from the butcher’s.

“A policeman told my boss that’s what happened. We were really shocked.

“On the whole we don’t get that sort of thing around here. It isn’t a bad place.”

Police were called to the area at around 8.30am, along with London Ambulance Service.

The first victim, who was found with stab wounds, was pronounced dead at the scene at 8.41am.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “We have recovered a knife from the scene. At this stage we are making inquiries as to where it came from.”

Shop workers were forced to close their doors today as police sealed off part of the road to investigate the death.

A spokesman for London Ambulance Service said: “We were called just after 8.30am to reports of a stabbing on the Broadway, Bexleyheath.

“We sent an ambulance crew and an officer to the scene. Sadly one patient, a woman, was dead at the scene.

“A second patient was treated at the scene for a minor hand injury. She did not require hospital treatment.”