Video shows mother rescuing her child by dragging him out of a car window in a terrifying kidnapping attempt

• A botched New York kidnap attempt was caught on security footage released by police.
• It shows the terrifying moment a man snatches a five-year-old boy and throws him into his car.
• The boy's mother then manages to pull the boy back through the passenger seat window.

Police have released harrowing footage of a botched kidnapping attempt Thursday evening on a New York street, in which a mother rescued her child through the getaway car window.

The brazen attempt was caught on security footage, which was released by NYPD Friday in an appeal for witnesses and information.

The video shows how at around 8pm Thursday evening, on Hillside Avenue in Queens, a man gets out of a hastily-parked car, jogs over to the sidewalk and snatches up a five-year-old boy walking with his family. Another man stays in the car.

He shoves the child into the rear seat and gets in the driver's seat - but in the meantime, the boy's mother and two other children have rushed to the car, trying to open the doors.

They finally manage to pull the boy through the front passenger window before the car speeds off.

The boy wasn't injured in the attempt, according to NYPD.

The mother, 45-year-old Dolores Diaz, told NBC 4 New York that she and her three kids had been on their way to meet her husband at work when the alleged kidnapper grabbed her son. She started screaming as soon as the suspect took her son, she told the network.

Police describe the snatcher as a dark-skinned man in his 30s, and his companion as a light-skinned man around 50 or 60 years old. According to NBC 4 New York, James McGonagle, a 24-year-old, was arrested Friday night on kidnapping charges.