This is the shocking moment a baby is snatched from a shopping trolley by a kidnapper who is spotted by the mum seconds before he vanishes down a busy aisle.

The footage was filmed in the Meyersdal SuperSpar in Gauteng, South Africa where the mum was looking at the meat in the refrigerated food section while her baby was in the shopping trolley nearby.

As she peers at the items on offer, a staff member saunters past, and then suddenly reaches over and pulls the baby from the trolley, holding her in his arms and making off down the aisles.

Just before he vanished, the mother turned round and realised the baby was missing, and then quickly spotted the man making off with the baby.

After the footage was shared, the staff worker, not named but aged 43, was identified and admitted taking the baby girl but insisted that he had not meant any harm when he removed her while her mother was not looking.

CCTV footage shows the kidnapping happening around the 1:30 mark.

In a post since deleted, the mother wrote: “I look up, and she’s gone. I immediately look for her and find her in the arms of this man. I’m able to grab her from him and say, what is he doing with my daughter? Why does he have her?

“He is smiling and laughing, telling me he walked past the trolley and my daughter’s arms were up, so he picked her up. I am frozen and confused. Why is he laughing? Behind me is another staff member – also laughing. I keep saying this is not funny. You don’t touch a child, you don’t take a child. This isn’t a joke, and I don’t find it amusing.”

She added later that when she spoke to the store manager they had also insisted that the man did not mean any harm.

Spar spokesperson Kerry Becker however appeared to treat it more seriously while stating that they were pleased that the attempted baby-snatching “was foiled on Sunday”.

In a statement, Spar said: “While we are extremely relieved that a reported case of attempted baby snatching at the independently owned Meyersdal SUPERSPAR was foiled on Sunday, we confirm the store’s owner along with store management took the decision to immediately suspend one staff member as a result of the incident and will take further action based on the results of an ongoing investigation.

“We can also confirm that the police recently arrested the staff member in question. The SPAR Group is also reaching out to the family to offer any support they need, including counselling.”