The terrifying moment a mother had her 3 y/o snatched out of her arms.

This type of thing isn’t meant to happen in Australia, is it?

Yesterday in a Queensland mall  the unthinkable happened. A mum was out with her two children in a suburban shopping centre — and suddenly out of her hands her three-year old was snatched.

In an amazing turn of events, two men saw the attempted abduction and chased down the offender.

The horrifying incident took place at the Lutwyche City shopping centre.

The Courier Mail reports the little boy was sitting with his mother and sibling in a café when he was literally taken from his mother’s arms.

A store owner Maree Deflavis told the newspaper “The mother was in shock and just yelling ‘help, help, help can you get my child?”

“They were sitting at the table and the child was just snatched out of the mother’s hands.”

The mother’s screaming alerted two men to the situation and they immediately gave chase to the abductor, finally cornering him still within the centre.

The man dropped the child — passersby say that he literally threw the three-year old to the ground — and was held in a citizen’s arrest  by the two heroic men until police arrived.

Simon Brooks, a witness, told The Courier Mail: “It’s a very good sign that people didn’t just stand around idly by and that when it happened they acted quickly.”

“We need to take our hats off to that these people, the sense of community that spurred these people into action I think that’s something to be proud of.”

The shocked mother was reunited tearfully with her child.

The man was arrested and will appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court today.