Adele Spencer, 28, fought off two intruders who tried to snatch her toddler daughter in Spain.Telling how she fought off the Moroccan-looking women when they broke into her home and tried to take 18-month old Annabelle from her high-chair.The incident came just three days after another British family in the same town were targeted. Yesterday it was claimed the family of missing Madeleine McCann were keen to find out more about the cases.
Miss Spencer said: "If I had been 10 seconds later she would have been gone. I'm just thankful I managed to get to Annabelle in time to save her.
"I never thought we would come close to suffering the same fate as Madeleine's parents. You read about horrific stories like theirs but you don't expect it to happen to you."The drama happened just after 3pm on Tuesday. The hairdresser was alone with her daughter in her rented home in Moraira, Costa Blanca.She had left Annabelle asleep in her high chair and was hanging up clothes in an adjoining bedroom while her fiancé Carl was at work.She said: "I thought it was Annabelle wakingup but when I went in to see her two Moroccan-looking women were standing over her, one on either side."They had taken her blanket from her and were about to try to lift Annabelle out of her chair. My legs buckled under me at first and I felt like I was going to be sick with the shock. But suddenly I came round and I just started screaming over and over, 'Get out of my house, get out of my house'.
"They started walking backwards slowly towards the door and the next minute, I threw myself at the older woman. I lunged at her face and throat as I tried to push her out of the house."
Spanish police are said to be linking the attempted kidnap to a separate bid to snatch a three-year-old British boy in the same town.
Her fiancé, from Leeds, added: "What has happened to Madeleine is awful and it so nearly happened to us. No other parent should have to go through that suffering."