Unborn baby survives after mother is shot dead with crossbow

Doctors have saved the life of an unborn baby after his mother was shot dead with a crossbow.

Heavily pregnant Devi Unmathallegadoo, 35, was fatally injured at her home in Applegarth Drive, Ilford, east London, on Monday, but medics managed to deliver her son in hospital.

Her husband Imtiaz Muhammad, told the Evening Standard that she was shot in front of her five other children, aged between one and 17, after he found her killer hiding in their garden shed.

The 42-year-old told the newspaper: "I went to put a cardboard box in the shed.

"He was there with the crossbow loaded.

"He stared at me, he was going to shoot so I ran into the house.

"My wife was doing the washing up, I was shouting 'run' 'run' 'run'.

"He shot her. I can't help thinking she took my arrow.

"Maybe it should have hit me. The kids were all there, it was horrific."

A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed that the baby had been delivered in hospital, where he remains.

Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, 50, of no fixed abode, appeared at Barkingside Magistrates' Court on Tuesday accused of her murder and is next due in court at the Old Bailey on November 15.