Man gives up abduction of toddler as siblings give chase

Two young siblings have saved their 22-month-old brother from the hands of a would-be kidnapper in the US after giving chase on foot.

The offender was caught on surveillance cameras running with the toddler in his arms down a street in Sprague, a tiny city of about 500 people in the state of Washington, last Sunday afternoon.

He had snatched the boy from a stroller in a public park where the kids, who were under the care of a babysitter at the time, were playing unattended, KHQ-TV reports.

Running after the man moments later, the footage shows, were the toddler's eight-year-old sister and 10-year-old brother, who was still pushing the stroller.

Police said the man then dropped the boy, who was found sitting on the ground unharmed about two streets away from the park.

Witnesses who saw the children running called police for help but the man fled before officers arrived.

Police are now asking for the public's help in identifying him.

"It looks to me a random act of trying to abduct a little boy," Lincoln County Undersheriff Kelly Watkins said.

The boy's mother, Nicole Wright, spoke of her distraught.

"I'm glad he's here now," she said. "It could have been so much worse."