Police believe they have identified a woman filmed trying to strangle a baby in Boots as a mentally-ill person.

The woman, who was captured on CCTV footage reaching inside a mother's pushchair and grabbing the one-year-old's throat, is being detained in a mental health facility and has not been arrested.

Officers were able to identify her thanks to information from the public, following an appeal.

The footage showed the woman, believed to be in her early 60s, following a mother pushing her child through the chemists on The Strand, in Westminster, at lunchtime on January 16.

The mother first thought the woman was just going to look at and fuss over her baby, but when she realised what was happening she grabbed the woman's hand before the youngster could be injured.

The woman was escorted outside by a security guard and reportedly said: "That baby would rather be dead."