A mother on trial accused of attempting to murder her next-door neighbour told the police she heard her son screaming: “Save me. Save me.”

Fazilat Nawaz, 63, of Ringwood Road, Canterbury, Bradford, said she was in her nightclothes upstairs at her home when she looked out of the window and saw up to eight people attacking her son, Nadeem. She said he was being kicked and punched and a woman was holding him by the hair.

Fazilat Nawaz told detectives she dressed hurriedly and went outside in her bare feet.

“I was begging and screaming ‘Please leave him. Don’t hit him’,” she said.

She feared the group was going to kidnap her son because they were dragging him towards a car. “They beat my son so much that my brain is not working,” she said.

Fazilat Nawaz said she called her daughters and they woke.

She denied hitting anyone or being involved in a confrontation. Asked if she had stabbed anybody, she replied: “I’d never do that, it’s lie.”

The jury at Bradford Crown Court has heard that the Nawaz’s neighbour, Mohammed ‘Raza’ Shah, 26, was stabbed at least 16 times to his chest, abdomen and back after 11pm on September 20 last year.

A surgeon told the jury he could have died from his injuries if they had not been treated promptly.

Fazilat Nawaz, Nadeem Nawaz, 25, also of Ringwood Road, and his sister Shazmeen Nawaz, 32, of Chelwood Drive, Lower Grange, Bradford, all deny attempted murder.

Nadeem Nawaz has admitted an alternative charge of wounding with intent, but the women also deny that.

Fazilat Nawaz said she had previously been involved in a dispute with her neighbours over parking but it had all been sorted out.

She had called out of the window telling them to move a vehicle and they had.

Nadeem Nawaz gave a prepared statement to the police and answered ‘no comment’ when questioned.

He said he was involved in an altercation with a neighbour who had made abusive comments to his sister.

Nawaz said Mr Shah had a knife but dropped it when he went backwards.

He said he used the weapon to defend himself when he was attacked.

The trial continues.