Emergency Caesarean saves baby after mother is attacked by burglars as she slept

A heavily pregnant woman bludgeoned by burglars was given an emergency Caesarean section to save her baby.

Nerys Price, 35, and her partner Simon Morris, 36, were asleep when raiders burst into the bedroom of their £300,000 home.

The thugs demanded the keys to their luxury cars and then hit Miss Price, who was two weeks from giving birth, twice across the head with a cosh.

She was seriously injured and was taken to hospital where doctors decided to operate at once.

Baby Freya arrived fit and healthy, weighing 6lbs 11oz. She was reunited with her mother 24 hours later and Miss Price is now recovering from the horrific ordeal in hospital.

As detectives hunted the raiders, a police source said the couple were lucky to be alive.

'We could easily have been looking at a double murder and the death of an unborn baby. It is a shocking, shocking crime,' said a source.

'It is incredible to think that someone would lash out at a pregnant woman.'

Mr Morris's parents, David and Brenda, said the whole family was shocked by the attack.

Mr Morris, 66, said: 'It sickens us to think that evil thieves could have killed them all. It must have been so terrifying for Nerys waking up and being attacked like that.'

He believes the thieves had targeted the £50,000 Chevrolet Corvette and silver BMW parked outside the detached house in Prestatyn, North Wales.

Mr Morris, a former mayor of Prestatyn, went on: 'When we went to the hospital we feared the worst for Nerys but were surprised to see her sitting up and holding her baby with tears of joy in her eyes.

'Freya is a beautiful, bonny baby with a small shock of hair. Nerys thinks she looks like Simon. We are so happy they are both well and recovering.'

Scene of crime: The house in Prestatyn where the couple were attacked

The incident happened in the early hours of Friday, when at least two raiders forced their way into the couple's house.

The thugs burst into the bedroom demanding the keys to their cars and struck Miss Price. When Mr Morris, who is 6ft 6in and 16 stone, tried to protect her he was attacked and repeatedly hit on the back of his head and back. The raiders then fled empty-handed.

Miss Price was taken to the Glan Clwyd Hospital in nearby Rhyl where she had her baby.

Mrs Morris, 63, said: 'It is so sad that their first baby had to be brought into the world like that. Neither of them want to go back to the house, and who can blame them?'