Portsmouth baby death: Neighbours speak of shock as sniffer dogs search home after women arrested for conspiracy to murder infant

Crime scene officers and two handlers with police dogs are going in and out of a property in the eight-home terraced block in All Saints Road in Portsmouth.

The property is about a minute’s walk through the rabbit warren of Buckland streets to the corner of Victoria Street and Old Commercial Road where a baby girl was found dead at 6.18am on January 25 - near Charles Dickens’ birthplace.

This morning detectives from Hampshire police’s major crime team arrested three women, 39, 21 and 20, all from the city, on suspicion of conspiring to murder the infant girl. They were arrested in the city.

All are being held in custody where they will be questioned.

The cul-de-sac is not the subject of a police cordon.

Nearby neighbour Teck Tay, 50, said: ‘I was shocked with what’s happening around in my neighbourhood.’

Abu Sohel, 32, who lives in the same terraced block, added: ‘I’m shocked that this is so near my house.’

A small police presence is in the street, with three uniformed officers and a police van parked near the house at the centre of the search.

Officers had previously made enquiries in the street during the investigation, residents said.

Two dogs have been taken inside the home.

Residents from nearby properties have been looking through their windows.

Few people have walked through the street as lockdown rules continue today.

Anyone with information should call police on 101 quoting 44200030626, or visit mipp.police.uk/operation/44HC20E02-PO1