Girl, 3, bitten by urban fox as she slept in bed upstairs

A GIRL of three was attacked in bed by an urban fox that crept into her bedroom.

Heidi Cooper screamed in pain as the animal sank its teeth into her arm after sneaking through an open door.

The attack was only stopped when her father, George, heard screaming from the room, where Heidi and her fourmonth-old sibling sleeps.

Mr Cooper, 37, said that his daughter was left ‘petrified’ by the incident, which left her with puncture wounds and scratches on her hand and arm. ‘I can’t believe it,’ he added, saying he thought fox attacks were an urban legend.

The attack unfolded at the family’s home in south-east London last Tuesday, after Mr Cooper put his daughter to bed. The back doors had been left open during the heatwave. Mr Cooper was watching a film in the living room when he was alerted by noises from the children’s bedroom.

He said: ‘Heidi occasionally wakes up in the night but as I got closer to the top of the stairs I heard the panic in her voice.’

When Mr Cooper turned on the lights he saw the animal jump from the bed as Heidi began to scream ‘fox’. He locked the child in an adjacent bedroom while the fox darted out of the house.

‘The four-month-old baby could have been up there with her. It could have been so much worse,’ he said.

While fox attacks are uncommon, there is concern that litter is encouraging the population to rise.

The RSPCA describes fox attacks as ‘extremely rare’ but says foxes can become ‘quite bold’ if left food.