A 41-year-old woman is in a serious condition in hospital after being stabbed in the chest in an Oxford house.

Detectives were called to Merewood Avenue, in Sandhills, at about 12.15am yesterday and found a woman with a stab wound to her chest.

A 24-year-old man is now being questioned in connection with the incident, after he was arrested at 4am yesterday by police in Northamptonshire on suspicion of driving a stolen car.

The woman was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital and was described last night as being in a serious condition.

She has not been named by police, but neighbours said she was a Scottish woman who worked at Littlemore Hospital. They said she had not lived in the shared house for long.

A 71-year-old neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: "I heard a noise that sounded like a short scream for just an instant." He said about that time he went to bed, but at about 12.40am he heard a car engine revving and he looked outside to check it was not joyriders. He said: "The car went down the road more slowly than a car would ordinarily drive. It started jerkily and it never had the lights switched on.

"That's all I saw until the police arrived an hour or so later, and then an ambulance."

Neighbour Naveed Ramzan, 21, said: "It's a real shock. This neighbourhood is really quiet, and everyone is so friendly around here."

Brian Stacey, 65, of Merewood Avenue, said: "Not much happens here normally, but with more houses being split up and let as shared houses, it does change the character of the area." Mary Reed, who runs R Reed Newsagent's, on the corner of Merewood Avenue and Burdell Avenue, added: "It's a surprise. It's a quiet area, we get a few rowdy kids from Barton sometimes."

Thames Valley Police spokesman Tim Prince said: "This was a nasty attack which has left a 41-year-old woman in a serious condition in hospital."