A 30-year-old woman whose body was found in Dagenham died from multiple stab wounds.

Police and ambulance services were called Baden Powell Close at 7pm on Monday, where the woman was pronounced dead.

A post-mortem showed she died from multiple stab wounds, police revealed today.

A 35-year-old man was arrested yesterday on suspicion of murder and remains in custody at an east London police station.

Residents in the street reacted with disbelief at the news.

Next-door neighbour Tom John, a barrister, said a young woman called Denesha lived in the terraced house with a child aged about five, a man believed to be her partner, and an older couple.

“The younger woman was friendly and approachable, and would often say hello. I went to her birthday party a few years ago, but don’t know the family that well,” he told the Post.

Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: “My son told me he thought there had been a murder but I didn’t believe him. I’m shocked, it is so sad – such a terrible thing to happen.

“I don’t know the family but they seem like very respectable people. I know there is a couple in their fifties and I think they have grown-up children. They are a church-going family.”