Witness plea after attempted child abductor found dead

Cumbria Police said the man was not known to his victims

Witnesses are being sought to an attempted abduction of a child during which a woman was stabbed.

The driver of a red Kia hit the woman and boy, who were both on bicycles, in Egremont, Cumbria, on 9 October.

A man in his 20s then attacked the woman and tried to take the child, assaulting him in the process, Cumbria Police said.

Shortly afterwards officers were called to a crashed red Kia Rio and found a man dead in nearby woodland.

Police said the circumstances of his death were not being treated as suspicious and he was not known to the victims.

The woman, in her 40s, was treated at Cumberland Infirmary for non-life threatening stab wounds on her arm and body.

The boy, who is of secondary school age, had minor injuries and was taken to hospital as a precaution.

The force said anyone with information could report it online, call 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.