Mum fights man 'who tried to snatch her daughter' in supermarket

A desperate mother pulled her daughter from the arms of a would-be child abductor who snatched the girl from under her nose in a US supermarket.

The mother and her 13-year-old daughter, who have not been identified, were shopping in the Citrus County Dollar General Store in Florida on Tuesday morning when the attempted kidnapping occurred, The Tampa Bay Times reports.

The store's security vision allegedly shows Craig Bonello, 30, pacing around the store without any groceries or bags when he makes a lunge for the teen.

In the scuffle he knocks her to the ground and drags her by the arm towards the exit.

But the mother doesn't give up and grabs onto her daughter as she swings at the man, hitting him enough times to force him to let go and make a run for it.

As he flees from the store off-duty Deputy Jonathan Behnen, who just happened to be arriving at the supermarket, arrested him at gunpoint.

Sergeant Craig Callahan from Citrus County deputies said he had never seen anything like it.

"He truly intended to abduct this child right in front of everyone in the store," he said.

Bonello had been arrested and charged with a number of offences in the past but was not a registered sex offender.

He now faces charges of kidnapping and child abuse.