Post mortems are due to be carried out on two people killed in a brutal 'stabbing' which police are treating as murder.

A 53-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody. He is said to be known to the victims, but not related.

Now neighbours have told how they helped cradle the injured after the attack which left two dead and two more in hospital.

Scroll down for audio and video

The victims have been named locally as mother of three Natasha Sadler, who was 40, and Simon Gorecki, a well-known fishmonger who previously worked at the Goods Shed in Canterbury.

Two young men, aged 17 and 20, were also injured and taken to hospital. The 17-year-old is still in a critical condition.

VIDEO: A man in his 50s has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Rab Hendry, 50, has described the shocking scene before police arrived in Dickens Avenue, Canterbury - at what was later to become a double fatal 'stabbing'.

Another neighbour has told how she used towels to stem the flow of blood from a seriously wounded teenager.

Emergency crews rushed to the house in Dickens Avenue at about 7.40pm on Tuesday night and discovered the pair had suffered fatal injuries.

Two other people were also injured in what is thought to have been a stabbing and have been taken to hospital.

Katie Christopher, of nearby Reed Avenue, said she was indoors when her daughter ran to tell her someone had been stabbed.

She grabbed some towels, and held them to the lad's stomach.

Ms Christopher described stroking his head, begging: "Please stay with me: please don't die."

The boy then screamed his name, before being taken away in an ambulance.

She claimed the woman who died was only 40, and a mother. She believed she died shielding others from being wounded.

Ms Christopher said: "It's sad. It's really gutting.

"I had to explain to my six-year-old what had happened. I had to keep her from the window."

She passed on her condolences to the family of those who had died.

She added: "How do you get over something like this? What must they be going through?

"I hope eventually they can hold their pain."

Now Mr Hendry has told how he saw two people at the scene.

The older one had apparently been stabbed in the arm, while the other was thought to have been knifed in the stomach.

Mr Hendry said: "I got the young fella to the ground, sat him up and I put towels on his wounds.

"He kept flopping to the side and I kept speaking to him.

"He asked me if he was going to die, and I said no, the ambulance is on its way."

The scene remains taped off by police while officers from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate work to establish the circumstances of the incident.

It is believed the man arrested and the victims are known to each other.

Witnesses at the scene earlier reported seeing one man wearing grey tracksuit bottoms "covered in blood" with a bandage around his arm.

A second man is thought to have been taken away in an ambulance.

Eyewitnesses say paramedics spent 10 minutes working on a patient lying on a stretcher before taking them to hospital.

Neighbour, Zoe Jones, 44, said: This sort of thing doesn't usually happen around here.

"Sometimes you get the odd tiff and the police come to sort it out but I've never seen anything like this.

"I'm just concerned for the people involved."

One neighbour, who declined to be named, told the Daily Mail they believed the property housed people who had been placed there by the authorities.

She said: "It's been like that for years. There have been some nice people living there who have been polite.

"Something like this happening round here is very unusual. I'm 49 and have been here since three months old, and it's been fine."

Charlotte Bunn, 83, who lives opposite, said: "I think the people who stay there live there for maybe one or two years then move on.

"I only knew the people who lived there to say hello to when out in the garden or walking in the street. They seem alright. I can't find any fault."

Eyewitnesses say between 15 and 20 emergency vehicles were parked up in the road.

Plain clothes officers, thought to be CID, have also been called in.

Police have not yet formally identified the dead people and are in the process of informing their next of kin of the man who also died at the scene.

Officers have been carrying out house to house enquiries and and post-mortem examinations are due to take place today.

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Gossett from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate said: "We understand that this incident will be of concern to residents.

"However, I would like to stress that we believe all individuals involved knew each other.

"Officers have been working at the scene in an effort to gather forensic evidence and our enquiries are on-going."