Baby twin girls seriously injured after being 'savaged by fox' as they slept in their cots

Vicious:The nine-month-old twins are in hospital after being hurt by the fox while sleeping in their cots

Twin baby girls have been mauled by a fox as they slept in their cots.

Nine-month-old Isabella and Lola Koupparis were attacked as they slept in an upstairs room after the animal found its way into their house in London.

Police believe the fox made its way through patio doors left open because of the heat while the parents watched television.

One girl is believed to have suffered wounds to an eye while the other has had surgery on an arm.

Their parents, Nick and Pauline Koupparis, dialled 999 at 10pm on Saturday after chasing the fox from their £800,000 three-storey Victorian terraced house in Stoke Newington, East London.

Last night the girls were recovering in the Royal London Hospital where their conditions were described as 'serious, but stable'.

Accountant Mr Koupparis, 40, is head of finance at independent film and television production company Leopard Films, which recently made TV drama Missing, starring Pauline Quirk, for the BBC.

The couple, who also have a four-year-old son, Max, were at their children's bedsides last night.

Isabella is believed to be in intensive care, while Lola is being treated on a separate ward.

Environmental health officers have left baited traps in gardens in the area because they fear the fox might attack other children.

Frightening attack: Nick Koupparis, father of the twins, is at their hospital bedside after the fox attacked them while they slept in their three-storey house in Stoke Newington, London

The Koupparis' next-door neighbour, Vgur Pekcin, 29, said last night: 'The fox jumped into their back garden and must have run up the stairs without them noticing.

'People heard screams and suddenly an ambulance and police turned up, sirens blazing, within minutes.

'I heard that the children were in a bad way and it's so horrible. There is a real fox problem round here and it's out of control.

The attack took place in the urban area of Stoke Newington, London

'Only last week a fox came into my sitting room while I was watching TV.

'I don't know how it got into the house but it just looked at me. I had to throw a cushion at it to get it away.

'I don't think they're getting much food as they're tearing up our bins and taking desperate measures.'

Neighbours said the fox entered the home through large folding 'French style' patio doors which run the full width of the family's living room and were left open.

A metal cage, baited with a bowl of dog food, was placed by patio doors in an attempt to trap the fox.

Mr Pekcin said the trap was put in place by council environmental health officers yesterday morning after the fox returned to the house and tried to get in.

Last night, a fox was discovered in one of the devices and was humanely destroyed by a vet early today.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'Hackney environmental health officers arranged for traps to be set in the rear garden of the address.

'(Last night) a neighbour informed environmental health officers that an animal could be heard in one of the traps.

'Police attended with a local authority pest controller and a fox was indeed found in a trap.

'A vet was called to establish if it was safe to move the animal. It was determined it was not and the fox was humanely killed by the pest controller at approximately 12.15am.

'The traps will remain in situ for the time being.'

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: 'We were called by the police to an address in E9 just after 10pm.

'The ambulance crew saw to two patients who were involved in a suspected fox attack. They were transferred to the Royal London Hospital.'

Tommy Walsh, the celebrity builder from BBC's Ground Force lives opposite the Kouppasis' house.

RADA trained actor Ben Whishaw, who starred in the 2008 film Brideshead Revisited, lives a few doors down.

Scottish actor John Hannah, who starred in 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral and Sliding Doors opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in 1998, also lives close by.

In urban areas of England there are an estimated 27 foxes per square mile, but no record of a person being seriously injured by one until Saturday night's attack.

Attacks have been recorded where a female fox has defended its cubs.

Even in these circumstances the vixen is far more likely to attempt to flee, and will not try to fight unless evasion is impossible.

The only previously recorded fox attack on a human in an urban area in Britain which resulted in hospital treatment was when a pensioner was bitten in Edinburgh in August 2004.

Margaret O'Shaughnessy, 88, was left with a threeinch-long bite mark on her leg following the attack in the Firrhill area of the city when she went into her garden late at night to feed her cat.

Mrs O'Shaughnessy was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where she had her leg dressed and was given a tetanus injection.

Occasional attacks in the countryside have been recorded. Rural foxes tend to be much larger than their city counterparts and can prey on animals as large as lambs.