The Metropolitan Police has released CCTV footage of a child being assaulted in a Boots in central London.

A mother entered the pharmacy on The Strand with her one-year-old son in a pushchair at around 12:30pm on January 16, police said. She was followed into the store by the suspect, who walked up to the pushchair and took hold of the baby’s throat “for a second”, said police, who released footage of the incident on Tuesday (February 17).

The mother initially thought the suspect had approached the child “just to look and fuss over” him, but once she realised what was happening she "immediately grabbed the suspect’s hand", police said. Although the mother had been “extremely shaken and traumatised” by the incident, her "quick reaction” had saved her son from injury, they stressed.

As the suspect was escorted from the pharmacy by a Boots security guard, she is reported to have said, “that baby would rather be dead”, police said. She then walked off in the direction of Trafalgar Square.
 
The individual was described as 5ft 2ins tall, in her early 60s and with a “chubby build”, light-coloured hair and “a boil or eye deformity on her face”, police said. She wore a deer stalker hat and a white, red and grey striped poncho with a brown handbag and black boots, they added.
 
Anyone who had witnessed the incident or had any information that could assist officers should call 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, police said.

 

Has a patient ever been assaulted in your pharmacy?

 

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