Four-year-old boy scares off home intruder as his mother was being 'tied up'

A young boy has scared off an intruder as he was tying up his mother in their home in the Northern Territory.

The man broke into the Palmerston home and was in the process of tying up the woman when the four-year-old suddenly woke and startled him. The man fled.

Police are searching for the man.