Two mental patients arrested for murders

London: Two patients treated at a London mental hospital notorious for lax security have been arrested after two separate murders within 48 hours.

Lesley Wright was stabbed 77 times at her home in Tooting on Friday night. Her husband, 54, was detained after a traffic warden saw him emerge from the house covered in blood.

In the early hours of Sunday a man died in a random street attack in Mitcham. A man has been charged with murder.

Sources have told the Standard both suspected killers are linked to Springfield Hospital in Tooting. Neither man is thought to be an in-patient now, but one may still have been on a treatment programme.

Wright was stabbed in the face, neck, chest and stomach. Police who found her said it was like a "scene from a horror film". The house in Topsham Road was taped off today as officers looked for clues.

Neighbours told police they had heard shouting and screaming for several hours before the killing. They said the married couple had lived there for more than a year without incident.

Springfield Hospital has been attacked for a catalogue of care-in-the-community blunders in the past four years.