Man charged with murder over western Sydney stabbing

Sydney, Aug 4 (IANS) Australian police have charged a man with murder over a fatal stabbing in Sydney's western suburbs.

A police statement on Monday said that emergency services were called to reports of a woman being located with stab wounds at a unit in Mount Pritchard, 28 km west of central Sydney, shortly after 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Ambulance paramedics arrived and treated the 62-year-old woman, but she died at the scene.

A 28-year-old man was arrested at the residence and taken to a nearby police station. According to police, the man and the victim were known to each other, Xinhua news agency reported.

Detectives established a crime scene and, following inquiries with assistance from the homicide squad, charged the 28-year-old man with one count of murder as an act of domestic violence.

He was refused bail and would make an initial appearance at a Sydney court on Monday.

Last month a French tourist was hospitalised with life-threatening injuries after being stabbed while trying to break up a fight in the Australian city of Brisbane.

Emergency services said that the man was found by ambulance paramedics with significant stab wounds to his chest in Fortitude Valley, a popular nightlife area in central Brisbane.

He was treated at the scene before being taken to the hospital in a life-threatening condition.

Local media identified the victim as a French tourist.

A witness and friend of the victim told Seven Network television that he had intervened to stop a fight between two other people when he was attacked.

"Two people were fighting, and he was right in the middle and he got stabbed, I think, three times and he started bleeding," he said.

Police attended the scene and arrested two people.

--IANS

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