Indian origin child punched by mugger in UK

London: A two-year-old British girl of Indian origin was punched in the face by a mugger after her mother refused to give up her handbag.

The incident took place on Friday at a busy road in Slough, Berkshire when Ms Maria Sharma, 28, was pushing her twins Paris and Sunny in a pram.

Ms Sharma was suddenly attacked by a man who tried to snatch her handbag, which was hanging from the toddlers' pushchair. She described the attacker as "looking possessed", Daily Mail reported.

When the single mother-of-four fought back, he crouched down and punched Paris full in the face.

He then again attempted to flee with Ms Sharma's handbag, but its strap was caught around the pushchair's handle and he ended up dragging the screaming children along the pavement.

The man stole her purse and keys before running off.

Both children were injured in the attack, with Paris covered in blood with a split and swollen lip and scrape marks across her face.

She was taken to Wexhamm Park Hospital for treatment.

"He went to snatch the bag from the handle of the pushchair. My automatic reaction was to not let him have it. We were struggling for a minute and then he released and I thought he was going to run away," she said.

"But he went to the front of the pushchair, crouched down, clenched his fist and punched my daughter in the face," Ms Sharma told the paper.

The twins instantly started screaming and Ms Sharma was also left bruised after struggling with the attacker, she described as a "black man in his early twenties."

"I keep beating myself up about it. I keep thinking should I have given him the bag or should I have hit him? I feel like a failure as a mother," she said.

Police officers investigating the attack took swabs from Paris's face in an attempt to identify the suspect through DNA profiling.

"The twins are so traumatised, every time someone knocks at the door they scream. They are not sleeping properly and they are not eating as much as they used to," she said.

Expressing her shock at this incident she said, "You hear about people attacking a woman all the time, but to attack a child, I can't even put into words how I feel about this man. I hope anyone who knows him and what he's done will turn him in and he is jailed for many years."

The man is described as black, with short hair, 5-feet 7 inches tall, of stocky build and was wearing a black shiny puffer jacket and black Adidas trainers.