IT was love and hugs today for little Zahra Sarrionandia who was kidnapped, stripped and beaten only yards from her Blackburn home.

Zahra -- aged just 20 months -- was taken to hospital with head injuries after being discovered covered in blood close to her home in Croasdale Square, Audley, Blackburn, on Sunday afternoon.

But today she was back home in the arms of her mum Eva.

Meanwhile a 12-year-old boy was expected to appear before a special youth court later today accused of abduction and grievous bodily harm.

Zahra had been playing out with her two sisters Tyrian, five, and Jasmin, two, as well as other children from the street when she went missing.

After her ordeal she was sent home from hospital yesterday with bruising to her face and scratch marks on her neck, but doctors have assured the family there was no sexual element to the attack. Her mum Eva, 24, said she was calling the children in to have their tea when she spotted her youngest daughter being carried across the road covered in blood.

Miss Sarrionandia, who lives with the children's father Ahklaq Ahmed, 27, said: "I looked out and a boy was carrying her back to the house.

"He had her in his arms and her face was covered in blood. I panicked and grabbed her.

He said to me 'It looks like she's been beaten up'. He followed me into the kitchen and said 'Whoever has done this is really sick.'"

Mr Ahmed, a delivery driver, said he heard a child scream but thought his daughter was in the kitchen with her mum.

He went on: "She had just been in the house so when I heard the scream I didn't for one second think it was her because it was too far away. I can't bear to think what might have been." The child was then taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary by paramedics as police sealed off a grass area opposite the family's home.

Photographs of the child's injuries and swabs were taken by doctors who told the family the bruising was consistent with Zahra being hit in the face.

Miss Sarriondia went on: "I didn't want to believe it. I kept telling myself she had fallen down.

"I didn't want to think anyone had hit her or taken her clothes off. How could anyone do this?"