A mother said she felt like she was in a ‘horror movie’ after a female stranger broke into her home and attempted to kidnap her baby.
Mary McCann had stepped outside for a cigarette when an unknown woman entered her home in Poole, Dorset.
The woman unclipped Ms McCann’s baby from his pram and reportedly attempted to escape through the back door.
A family member noticed the woman inside the home and alerted the mother who ran inside to stop her from taking her child.
She told the Bournemouth Echo said: ‘I’d never seen this woman in my life, but she knew my name and told my daughter she was a babysitter.
‘When someone has your baby in her arms, and you don’t know what she’s going to do, it feels like something out of a horror movie.’
The mother said she rang the police while the woman was still inside her home claiming that she was started to act aggressively towards her.
Ms McCann added that her family have been left completely shaken by the incident, unable to sleep, and that her daughter continually checks the doors and on her younger brother.
Dorset Police said they received a report at 2.46pm on February 7 that an unknown woman had entered a home on Waxwing Drive in Poole and taken hold of a child.
A police spokesperson said: ‘The child was not taken from the address and did not sustain any injuries during the incident.
‘Officers attended, and a woman aged in her 30s was arrested in connection with the incident.’
The woman has since been released on bail and has been taken to a mental health facility to receive appropriate medical care at a mental health facility.
Police said enquiries into the incident are ongoing.