Published Monday, 07 June 2010
Pauline Kouparris has described how she found nine-month-old twins Lola and Isabella covered in blood in an upstairs room of their east London home on Saturday night.
The fox is thought to have entered through a door on the ground floor which had been left open because of the heat and attacked the twins in their upstairs room as their parents were reportedly watching television. Their four-year-old brother, Max, who was also sleeping upstairs, was not hurt.
The babies both suffered arm injuries and one suffered facial injuries - they remain in a serious but stable condition in hospital.
Their mother told a radio station, BBC London, how she saw blood in the cot and assumed one of the babies, Isabella, had a nosebleed.
"I put on the light, I saw the fox and it wasn't even scared of me - it just looked me exactly in the eye," she said.
"I started screaming as I realised Lola was also covered in blood.
"My husband came running up - by this stage we were both screaming hysterically and the fox didn't even leave the room."
Both babies have undergone surgery - according to Mrs Kouparris, Lola looked "dreadful" but was doing well while Isabella was receiving special care.
After the attack, pest controllers set fox traps in the back garden and on Sunday night a fox was discovered in one of the devices and was humanely destroyed by a vet early on Monday.
Maurice Turley from the Ulster Wildlife Trust said this is a very unusual situation.
"It's important to say this is extremely uncommon. There is an increase in the number of urban foxes, particularly where developments happen. Normally foxes live side by side with humans with no problem.
"Foxes are wild animals, it's important that is noted. They are carnivores and predators. However this is very unlikely. I can only remember one other case where something like this has been reported. Most of the time a fox will be more scared of us than we are of them".
Hackney Council said this was the first time it had ever had a report of a fox attacking a resident.
"We have never had reports in the past of foxes attacking residents," a spokesman said.
"All the expert advice we have had suggests that shocking incidents like this are incredibly rare and our thoughts are with the children and their family."