A mum-of-six says a knife-wielding clown tried to snatch her three-month-old baby.

Leah Newton says he was only thwarted after he couldn’t get the child’s baby seat out of her car.

Leah, 32, says she was confronted by a man wearing a clown’s mask as she left a birthday party at The Top Club on Brackenhall Road in Deighton, at around 11pm on Friday.

She has six children, 12-year-old daughters Shannique and Shannise, 10-year-old Leashaun, eight-year-old son Demani, two-year-old son Jahzier and three-month-old daughter Destini.

She had put Shannise, Jahzier and Destini in her car, a Vauxhall Zafira, and was coming back out with the other three when she spotted the clown coming towards her wielding a knife.

Newton family of Dalton terrified by a clown incident, left to right, Shannique, Jahzier, Shannise, De-Mani, Leashaun, Destini and mother Leah.

Terrified, she shouted at her children to lock the car door and ran back to the club to try to summon help and was so scared she fell down the steps, bruising herself.

She said at first people wouldn’t believe her and thought it was a prank.

Leah said: “Shannique was trying to tell me something when we were leaving the club and was then screaming. She had seen the clown with the knife coming towards me.

A person wearing a clown costume in a street in Liverpool

“When we went back outside Shannise was hysterical and said the clown had opened the car door and was ragging the baby seat, trying to pull it out of the car but could not get it out.

“There were three dressed as clowns and another one jumped on the bonnet.”

A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police has confirmed the incident has been reported and enquiries are ongoing.

Anyone with any information on the incident is ugred to call police via 101, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.