A HORRIFIED mother today told how she feared her young daughter was being abducted when a stranger climbed into the family car.

Wendy Smith, 36, had left two-year-old Amanda strapped in the back seat for only a few minutes just yards away from their home when the man struck.

She let out a scream which sent him fleeing.

"I panicked when I saw the man sat in the car.

"My first thought was that he was trying to take Amanda," said Wendy, an industrial secretary at Akzo Nobel, Darwen.

"Amanda was fast asleep so I thought I'd open the door to make it easier to carry her into the house.

"She was bewildered when she woke up to hear me screaming. Luckily she hadn't seen the man and wasn't upset or frightened." Wendy had been returning home to Cavendish Street, Darwen, after collecting the toddler from her grandmother when the terrifying incident happened shortly before 9pm on Tuesday.

It was dark and raining and she had been forced to park further away from the terrace house than usual.

In the time it took Wendy to unlock the door and put down her handbag the man had got into the black Metro and was searching it.

She added: "It has really shocked me that something like that could happen outside our home.

"I certainly won't be leaving Amanda in the car alone again even for a minute."

The offender was white, about 5ft 11ins tall and stocky, with dark, wavy hair and a moustache. He was wearing dark clothes.

Sergeant Rob Campbell of Darwen CID said: "Many parents don't think twice about leaving their child in the car for a minute or two. "What happened to this family should act as a warning to others.

"Luckily the child was unharmed but it could very easily have become much more serious."

The incident comes just two years after a man abducted a mother and her 11-week-old baby from Asda Car Park, Blackburn, sending shock waves through the Darwen community.

Wayne Thomas Gaskin, 25, struck on August bank holiday 1997.

He took the 27-year-old Patricia McBride and her daughter Joanie, who are also from the town, on a terrifying two-mile journey during which he threatened to inject them with AIDS.

Preston Crown Court later sentenced him to five years in prison.

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