The heartbroken mother of two children believed to have been stabbed to death by their father has told of the horrifying moment she discovered their blood-soaked bodies.
Nishanthani Kumar sobbed hysterically as she recalled how she stormed into a bedroom to discover her two young children lying on a bed drenched in blood as their suspected killer knelt over them with a large kitchen knife in his hand.
Her husband Nithin Kumar, 40, is in hospital under police guard with critical stab wounds after the alleged attempted murder-suicide at the family home in Ilford, east London at 5.30pm on Sunday.
Nishanthani Kumar and Nithin Kumar pictured (left) with their son Nigish and, right, Nigish and his sister Pabinya are pictured
Speaking to MailOnline today, Mrs Kumar wailed: ‘I was in the bathroom and could hear one of my children vomiting. I rushed into the bedroom and when I saw them covered in blood, just started screaming. I was shouting ‘what have you done to them, what has happened?
She said the man was just ‘kneeling over them with a crazed look in his eye and didn’t say a word. I couldn’t understand what was going on.’
MailOnline can reveal the names of the Kumars’ children as daughter Pabinya, one, who died in the couple’s flat in Ilford, East London and son Nigish, three-and-a-half who died later in a major trauma centre.
Mrs Kumar, who is known as Nisa, wept as she recalled the devastating events of Sunday afternoon, revealing that when she saw realised that her beloved children had been stabbed her ‘mother’s instincts kicked in.’
She cried: ‘I rushed to the fridge to get some ice because I could see that my son had a deep cut to his neck. Blood was gushing out of it. I ran back into the bedroom and started applying the ice to his neck. He was barely able to breathe and was wheezing heavily.
Nithin Kumar (pictured) is in a critical condition in hospital after a one-year-old and three-year-old died last night
‘My daughter was not moving at all. There was blood all around her. All I could think about was how to save them.’
The distraught mother then ran into the bathroom to dial 999 as the suspect leaped off the bed and chased after her.
She said: ‘I thought he was going to attack me too, so I lashed out and the knife fell out of his hand. I then ran out of the bathroom screaming to the 999 operator that they needed to send an ambulance quickly because my children had been stabbed.’
As she returned to be with her dying children, she said the killer then emerged from the bathroom with blood spouting out of his neck. He then slumped on the bed beside.
Recounting his haunting words, she told MailOnline: ‘He kept on saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m scared that they are going to kill me and might do something to the children. He was speaking like a mad man and was going on about ‘how they are going to get him’ and that he ‘had to save the children’. I couldn’t make sense of what he was saying. And then he just passed out.’
Police, pictured at the scene today, are now conducting a murder investigation – but said all three people knew each other
Pictured: Teddy bears in a window at the scene as police investigate the deaths of a three-year-old boy and one-year-old girl who were stabbed in an alleged attempted murder-suicide
Mrs Kumar, 35, believes that the man had some kind of ‘psychotic episode’ even though he did not have any history of mental illness.
She said: ‘He was a kind, gentle man and very softly spoken. None of this makes any sense. Now everything has been lost.’
The grieving mother shared her favourite picture of her children with MailOnline, taken last September on Pabinya’s first birthday.
She said: ‘This is how I want to remember them. Smiling, happy and playing together. We’d had a beautiful day and all the family came over to celebrate. Pabinya got all these wonderful presents and Nigish was also very excited because he was helping her to open them.
Nithin Kumar, 40, is pictured with his wife Nisa and their one-year-old daughter and three-year-old son who were both killed in the horrific incident in Ilford, east London
‘But I keep seeing them on that bed, covered in blood and Nigish fighting to breathe. I can’t sleep at night because that image keeps coming to my mind. It’s like being in the worst nightmare imaginable. There are no words to describe what I am going through. I don’t understand why God has punished me like this.’
The Kumars wed in 2012 in their native country of Sri Lanka in a traditional arranged marriage. Mr Kumar has been in Britain since 1999 with his wife joining him in 2015. Both their children were born in the UK.
Mr Kumar is currently battling for his life in an East London hospital while his wife is staying with her sister Rajani in West London.
There has been a steady flow of mourners from the local Sri Lankan community visiting to pay their respects.
Mrs Kumar sobbed that despite the anger she feels she has been regularly calling the hospital to get an update on her husband’s condition.
As she attempts to come to terms with her devastating loss, she cried: ‘I don’t know how I feel about him at the moment, but I do want to know if he is going to live or not. I’ve lost my children and now I could also become a widow.
‘When I came to join my husband in Britain, I thought we were going to be happy. There is nothing that can express the shock and sorrow I feel. My children were my life. Sometimes I wish that I had killed been too because then I would not have to go through this kind of pain.’