Girl, 12, is arrested over deadly stabbing

A young girl has been arrested after a woman was stabbed to death in Melbourne.

Emergency services were called to the old Royal Hotel on Barkly St in Footscray after a woman, 37, was found dead after 2am on Thursday.

A 12-year-old girl was arrested at the scene.

She has since been taken to hospital where she remains under police guard.

It’s understood an altercation broke out above the hostel on the upper floors, where the building has been converted into apartments.

Forensics and the homicide squad have established a crime scene and have spent the morning collecting evidence.

Investigations are still ongoing to establish if the 12-year-old girl and the woman were known to each other.

Police asked car owners along Barkly St to check their dashcams and come forward with footage.

Anyone who witnessed the incident is also urged contact Crime Stoppers.

Local business owners said they were surprised that the stabbing had occurred in the inner city suburb, but one noted that there had been an uptick in crime in the past few years.

“After the pandemic people are just so agro, I don’t know what’s going on, they get heated up so quickly,” she said.

“I had an incident just last night where someone tried to kick in the windows to my shop, I reported it to the police.”