A dad has spoken of his horror after his three-year-old daughter awoke to a fox attacking her in bed.

George Cooper, 37, brought his toddler upstairs on Tuesday (August 7) evening after a day out visiting family.

“I lay there for half an hour and read her a story,” he told News Shopper. “I took my four-month-old baby downstairs and then their mum came home from work.”

The trio were in their lounge in Petts Wood near Station Square watching a film when screams echoed from upstairs a short time later.

George recalled: “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.

“I turned on the light and saw it jump down. She was screaming ‘fox’. I grabbed her and shut her in the other bedroom.

“I stamped my foot and the fox left the house by going down the stairs and out the back door.”

The frantic parents realised Heidi was bleeding and had suffered bites to her hand and nasty scratches on her arms. Thankfully her injuries are not more serious.

“I just can’t believe it,” George said. “I’m the type that treats this as urban legend. But I’m shocked it happened to us.”

The dad said he had been keeping the back door open because of the heat and argued that any human trespasser would have had to walk by the living room to get upstairs.

He said his daughter was still in shock but has been “so brave” since.

“She was obviously petrified at the time but she’s been amazing. She says the ‘bad fox might come back’ but I’ve been sleeping in with her now.

"I'm hoping she will be fine in a week or so.

“I feel sick about it. Normally the four-month-old baby could have been up there with her. It could have been so much worse.”

The relieved dad is trying to remain positive and is now keen on warning parents of this unlikely danger.

In 2013 we reported on one-month-old baby Denny Dolan being attacked by a fox in his Downham home. He had to undergo a complex operation to reattach one of his fingers after it was ripped off.

Last year we reported on another incident in Petts Wood when a woman found a "stinky" fox in her home and it refused to leave.