A POST mortem examination opens today into the 100-year-old woman found stabbed to death in her home in London’s East End. A murder enquiry was under way yesterday after Hannah Fitzgibbon was found with a stab wound in her neck at her bungalow in Stepney

By Victoria Huntley

A POST mortem examination is being held this-afternoon into the 100-year-old woman found stabbed to death in her home in London's East End.

A murder enquiry was under way yesterday after police and ambulance paramedics found the woman, named as Hannah Fitzgibbon, with a single stab wound in her neck at her terraced bungalow in Hainton Close, off Commercial Road in Stepney, at 9.45am. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The post-mortem examination takes place at Poplar mortuary at 2pm. Inquiries are being led by Det Ins Andy Yeats.

A 61-year-old man has been arrested and remains in custody this-morning at an East London police station.

Relatives of the woman, who celebrated her 100th birthday with a party at her home in September, gathered outside the bungalow yesterday afternoon to say a prayer for her.

Neighbour Susan Lowe, 54, told the East London Advertiser: "She had a big party for her 100th birthday. There were balloons up all over the house and it looked like she had a big crowd of people there.

"It's absolutely awful to think that this has happened. You should be celebrating at that time of life."

Family members were visibly shaking and wept while a priest led them in prayer outside the home the woman had shared with her son for years.