London , England ( CNN ) -- Two nine-month-old twin girls were in a serious condition in hospital on Monday after being mauled by a fox as they slept in their London home , according to police . The two girls were attacked in their upstairs bedroom at a house in Hackney , east London , after the fox apparently entered the house through a door left open because of the heat while the twins ' parents watched television downstairs , police said . `` Officers and the London Ambulance Service attended and found two nine-month-old girls with injuries , '' a Metropolitan Police spokesman told CNN . `` Both babies were taken to an east London hospital where their condition is described as serious but stable . '' A fox caught in a trap placed at the rear of the property by local environmental officers was destroyed early on Monday , the spokesman said . `` On Sunday night a neighbor informed environmental health officers that an animal could be heard in one of the traps , '' he said . `` A vet was called to establish if it was safe to move the animal . It was determined it was not and the fox was humanely killed by the pest controller ... The traps will remain in situ for the time being . '' The twins , Lola and Isabella Koupparis , are being treated at London 's Royal Free Hospital . The twins ' four-year-old brother , who was also asleep upstairs , was not hurt , the UK 's Press Association said . The girls ' mother , Pauline Koupparis , told the BBC she had gone to check on the twins after hearing `` a funny cry , not a normal cry '' from the bedroom . `` It was quite muffled but very pained . I went into the room and I saw some blood in Isabella 's cot , I thought she had a nosebleed . `` I put on the light , I saw the fox , it just looked at me and it was n't even scared of me . I started screaming as I realised Lola was also covered in blood . '' Foxes are a common sight throughout London , especially in Hackney which backs onto the green spaces of Hackney Marshes , the Lea Valley Regional Park and the new Olympic site . A neighbor of the family told PA : `` We 've all got foxes at the bottom of our gardens . Some people have got two or three living in their garden . They 're all as bold as brass . You walk out into the garden and you have to shoo them away . '' Of the twin girls , she said : `` They 're beautiful little babies , really beautiful . '' Michael Parra , another neighbor , said police had warned residents not to leave doors open in the summer weather . `` We see a lot of foxes around here . They 're always in our garden . Something should be done about them . I would love to get them out of here . They 're really a nuisance and a danger . They 've terrorized our garden . '' A Hackney Council spokesman said the council did n't have dedicated environmental officers to deal with foxes but had called in a private contractor over the incident . He said the council usually received `` one or two phone calls a month '' from people concerned about foxes going through their trash . `` We have never had reports in the past of foxes attacking residents , '' the spokesman told CNN . `` All the expert advice we have had suggests that shocking incidents like this are incredibly rare , and our thoughts are with the children and their family . ''
Twin boys were asleep in upstairs bedroom when attack occured . Nine - year - olds ' condition described as ` ` serious but stable '' Fox caught in fire at home has been destroyed . Hackney Council has no past reports of foxes by residents .