Baby girl mauled by fox 'feeling better'

A baby girl mauled by a fox as she slept was "a lot better" today, her grandmother said.

Lola Koupparis and her twin sister Isabella, aged nine months, were found crying and covered in blood after the fox went into their upstairs bedroom and attacked them in their cots in Hackney, east London.

Their family remained worried about Isabella this morning.

The twins' grandmother Zoe Koupparis, from Hackney, said: "Lola is a lot better but Isabella is still sedated.

"We're really pleased about Lola. Nick and Pauline (the girls' parents) are definitely pleased but of course they're concerned about Isabella."

She did not know whether Lola would be discharged today from the Royal London Hospital in east London, where the tots were taken after the attack on Saturday night, adding: "It depends on what the doctor says."

Isabella was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital in central London on Monday night for further treatment.

Family members have reportedly said that the fox attack could be "life-changing" for the twins.

Their mother discovered the tots looking "like something from a horror movie" after the mauling and described it as "like a living nightmare".

Lola had facial injuries and some puncture marks on her arm, while Isabella suffered injuries to her arm, she said.

She added that both children had undergone surgery.

Mrs Koupparis told radio station BBC London: "It's something I would never expect to happen to anybody, let alone happen to my beautiful girls."

The twins were attacked as they slept at their parents' smart three-storey home at around 10pm on Saturday.

Their four-year-old brother, Max, who was also sleeping upstairs, was not hurt.

The fox is thought to have crept in through a door on the ground floor which had been left open because of the hot weather while Mr and Mrs Koupparis watched Britain's Got Talent on television.

It is thought the fox may have seen the babies as potential rivals for food.

Urban wildlife consultant John Bryant said the attack was probably carried out by a cub attracted by the smell of milk or the babies' nappies.

He said the fox might have tried to tug a nappy out of the infants' cot and thought the twins were preventing it.

"I think this fox has grabbed the nappy thinking it was food, can't get it out through the bars and fought with what it sees as a rival for the nappy," he said.

Mr Bryant, from Tonbridge in Kent, said foxes often drag nappies out of bins thinking they are food, adding: "It's a terrible event."

Foxes are not usually aggressive towards humans and the incident has made people panic, he said.

After the attack pest controllers set fox traps in the back garden and a fox found in one of the devices was humanely destroyed by a vet on Monday.