TORONTO -- It was a horrifying moment for a 24-year-old North York mother of four as she tugged her four-year-old daughter from the clutches of a man who tried to run away with the child.

The mom, who asked not be named, said her ordeal started after she got off a bus Sunday around 5:50 p.m. with her kids -- a son, 7, her daughter and two young boys in a stroller. On her way to the family's apartment, she started crossing Jane St., at Firgrove Cres., near Finch Ave.

"When I was walking across the street, there was a guy walking the opposite way of me and he put his foot out and he tripped my daughter" in the crosswalk, she said. "When he tripped her, she fell on the ground and he picked her up and he ran with her.

"I was scared. I didn't know what he was doing," the woman said ... he picked her up and actually ran across the street with her."

The frantic woman told her oldest son to take the younger boys to their building while she turned to give chase.

"I finally got to her coat and I had her with two hands but he was hitting at my arms, so I finally let my right hand go, and I had her with just my one hand," the woman said.

She said her daughter's eyes were as large as saucers while saying, "Mommy, he's going to get me, he's going to hurt her."

"All he kept saying was, 'I got her, I got her,' " the woman said.

Toronto Police Det.-Sgt. Al Coulter said investigators are looking for video taken by surveillance cameras in the area to get a better description of the man. He said area schools were notified of the incident.

The woman said no one came to her aid until a man in a car yelled at the suspect to let the girl go.

"He finally gave in and let go," she said.

ROB.LAMBERTI@SUNMEDIA.CA