A 20-year-old woman was fighting for her life today after being repeatedly stabbed in a supermarket in an apparently random attack.

The victim, who has not been named, was rushed into emergency surgery after the attack in front of horrified shoppers at a Somerfield Store in Littlehampton, West Sussex. Detectives said today that they had so far found no link between the woman and her assailant, suggesting that the attack, while frenzied, may have been motiveless.

A 21-year-old man from Bognor Regis was arrested shortly after the incident late yesterday afternoon and remained in custody in Worthing, a spokesman for Sussex Police said. The victim was initially taken to Worthing hospital but was later transferred to Southampton for specialist treatment, a hospital spokesperson said.

Detective Chief Inspector Jeff Riley, leading the investigation, said: “This appears to be a random and motiveless attack on an innocent young woman shopping in her local store.

“As far as we are aware, she was not known to her attacker."

The attack took place at around 4.30pm, just as the store was filling up with parents and children on their way home from school.

Witnesses described how the attacker leapt on the young woman and began a savage knife attack, leaving her with severe stab wounds across her body, including her neck and chest.

A security guard pounced on the suspect and other customers helped staunch the blood from her wounds before paramedics and police arrived.

Shocked customers and staff were seen consoling each other outside the store following the attack, which left a trail of blood in one of the aisles.

One witness, 54-year-old grandmother Bonnie Brown, described how the victim was left lying in a pool of blood.

Mrs Brown, of Lyminster, near Littlehampton, told the Brighton Argus: “Everyone stopped what they were doing. I went round the corner and looked down the aisle.

“I saw a man stabbing this young lady. He was stabbing her again and again and again. There was blood everywhere.

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