Nicholas Salvador, 25, will appear in court later today, after Palmira Silva was tragically attacked in broad daylight on Thursday afternoon.

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Ms Silva was found dead by police in her garden in Nightingale Road in Edmonton.

Police were called to the scene after they received reports of a man with a knife 'attacking an animal'.

Reports revealed that the great-grandmother had just returned from a holiday where she and been visiting family in southern Italy.

A friend of Ms Silva's told The Sun: "It sends a chill down my spine. I last saw her at the bus stop before she set off for Italy. She was so excited.

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"It is devastating to see someone who is a lovely human being destroyed by insanity. She was a lovely lady. She had a big family. She lost her husband a few years ago and worked hard."

Metropolitan police commander Simon Letchford confirmed: "A 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and he is now in our custody.

"During the arrest officers did discharge tasters and at least one firearms officer has been injured effecting that arrest – with what we believe to be a broken wrist.

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"These sort of events on our streets during the day in residential areas are very, very unusual and not common.

"Finally, we still need to understand the motivation behind this attack and, before we've done that and carried out an investigation, I am unwilling to speculate what that may be. However, based on what we currently know, we do not believe this too be terror related."