A toddler was found stabbed to death and her mother seriously injured in an east London flat.

Shocked residents of the Law House complex in Maybury Road, Barking, said they had told police they feared for the child after her mother behaved strangely.

The woman, believed to be in her 20s, is being treated in hospital for serious - but not life-threatening - stab wounds.

The Met's child abuse team said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the stabbing.

Officers found the child, thought to be aged two, in the nine-storey block on the Thames View estate at around 00.15am this morning.

Huseyin Alacayir, 30, who works at the nearby Thames Superstore off-licence store where the women rented DVDs, said she had been barred recently after he reported her to police.

"At first she was acting like a normal person," he said. "But the lady wasn't happy because she was looking sad when she came in.

"She was telling me I was her husband and I needed to go home because the kid needed me. She was shouting.

"I gave my statement to the police. I have no idea what happened last night... I feel very sad. We told police that something was going to happen to the kid at the end of the day."

Ranjan Sinnathurai, manager of the Lucky Wines store, said the woman was always "making trouble" and locals were very worried for her daughter.

A spokesman for Barking & Dagenham Council said the child was not in care or on the child protection register.