A mum has told how a brazen fox burst into the family home and terrified her one-year-old daughter.
Deborah Ward, 41, spoke of her horror when the large fox came within inches of her daughter, Scarlett, as she played on the floor at her home in Little Melton, Norfolk.
The incident came just two months after an urban fox attacked a four-week-old baby in south east London.
Deborah told her local paper: "It was just so out of the blue. It was petrifying. I had just hung out my washing in the garden and my one-year-old was at the back door playing with the washing machine.
"I didn't know anything about it until I heard an enormous crash behind me when this massive fox came skidding through the room and bounced off my oven. It was definitely a male one because it was so big.
"It was obviously scared and trying to get away. It did a circuit of the house looking for somewhere to escape, and was jumping up at the windows to try and get through. I just screamed and grabbed my one-year-old and got out of the house."
Luckily her neighbour Tony Cooper came to her aid.
"I ran outside and my neighbour, who is an ex-farmer, came through with a broom to get rid of it," Deborah added.
"It had got itself cornered in the downstairs bathroom, so it was tricky to get it out because it was a bit scared. It was just so unexpected.
"I had seen this fox once before, and it is so brazen it walks around in the middle of the road.
"My husband has seen this one before and took a photo of it when it was standing in the road, bold as brass, staring him down.
"Because my children sleep in cots during the day, if it had taken a different turning and had found the other children sleeping I don't know what it might have done. I am so grateful it went past Scarlett.
"Scarlett was fine, and I don't think she even noticed, but I could not see her.
"I don't want to be shut up in my house forever as a result of this, and luckily it is very unusual. My garage door was open so the fox had a clear path through the house. Usually I do not have both doors open.
"It was a very rare chain of events, and I just can't believe it really. You think your children are safe in your own garden, but this thing came through at such a pace, and that was what alarmed me. It was running at full pelt. That just added to my panic."