These are the first pictures to emerge of a father who is critical in hospital after an 'attempted murder suicide' in which his son, three, and daughter, one, were stabbed to death while their distraught mother ran from the flat screaming 'help me.... it's my children'.
The man has been named locally as their father, Nithin Kumar, MailOnline can reveal.
Mr Kumar, who is known as Nithi, worked in the shop near his home in Ilford, and returned home shortly before 4.30pm before the fatal stabbings at around 5.40pm yesterday.
His employer, Shanmugatha Thevadurai, 54, told MailOnline today: 'Everything was normal. Nithi was a wonderful man and a loyal worker. He opened the shop at 9am, worked a normal day and made me tea shortly before he left.'
Eyewitnesses reported how a distraught mother ran into the street screaming after her son, three, and daughter, one, were stabbed to death.
The girl died at home in Ilford, East London as her brother was rushed to hospital before dying in a major trauma centre.
Neighbour Reshna Begum, who lives across the road from the family, said the mother of the stabbed children was screaming as though she had been tortured.
'I heard a woman screaming 'Help me',' she said. 'It sounded like she was being tortured. I knew something horrible must have happened, it went on for about 10 minutes.'
