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'He stabbed me, darling'

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Woman killed in Australia while on phone with husband in India

An Indian mother was fatally stabbed in a Sydney park during a brutal attack as she was on the phone with her husband back in Bangalore, police said yesterday.

Ms Prabha Arun Kumar, a 41-year-old IT professional, was taking a short cut through Parramatta Park in the city's west at around 9.30pm on Saturday when she was killed.

She was just 300m from home.

Police refused to reveal details of the phone call, but reports said she told her husband: "He stabbed me, darling", before the conversation abruptly ended.

"He's understandably extremely distressed," homicide squad commander Michael Willing said of Ms Kumar's husband, who flew to Australia yesterday and was helping police with their investigation.

"Here we have an Indian national who has been in the country for some time, going about her business and ends up being killed in a very vicious way."

Ms Kumar had reportedly planned to move back to India to be with her husband and nine-year-old daughter.

Police appealed for help from the public, releasing footage of Ms Kumar walking from Parramatta Railway Station.

Said Mr Willing: "It's a horrific crime. It's a very, very disturbing crime.

"We think that she sustained a number of injuries to the neck area with what we believe is a sharp-edged weapon."

Police said there was nothing to suggest that it was racially motivated.

The dead woman's flatmate, identified as Sarada, told The Daily Telegraph that Ms Kumar had probably not wanted to bother anyone to ask for a lift home after finishing work late and arriving at Parramatta train station at 9pm.

She decided to walk and was attacked near a quiet, tree-lined path.

Ms Kumar was found by a passer-by shortly afterwards and rushed to hospital, but she had lost too much blood.

No arrests have been made so far.

A spate of violent crimes against Indian students in Australia in 2010, including the stabbing murder of 21-year-old Nitin Garg, heightened tensions between the two countries. - AFP.