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Cops: Intruder takes girl from house, beats her

Police are searching for an intruder who allegedly carried a 5-year-old North Philadelphia girl from her home Monday or early Tuesday and physically assaulted her, resulting in serious injury.

Police are searching for an intruder who allegedly carried a 5-year-old North Philadelphia girl from her home Monday or early Tuesday and physically assaulted her, resulting in serious injury.

The girl's mother noticed when she awoke about 7 a.m. Tuesday that her daughter was not in the house, on the 2600 block of North Hutchinson Street.

The mother found the girl, semiconscious, in the backyard, police said.

The girl suffered a facial fracture and possible internal injuries, said Capt. John Darby of the Special Victims Unit. She was not sexually assaulted, police said. She is in stable condition at St. Christopher's Hospital.

Police said the attack happened between 10 p.m. Monday and when the girl was found. The girl told police that her assailant - whom she described as a tall, thin black man wearing a black T-shirt and tan shorts - emerged from behind a closet door and grabbed her. He then carried her out of the house and attacked her, stomping on her, the girl told police.

"The level of violence . . . is beyond the pale," Darby said.

Police have not determined if the girl's house was targeted or if the attack was random, though Darby said nothing indicated that it was part of a pattern.

The offender may have entered the house through a first-floor side window, which may have been "disturbed in some fashion," he said.

Darby called the attack "about as bad as it gets.

"The idea [of] someone feeling safe in their own residence is paramount," he said.

Anyone with information is asked to call police.