This is the moment a mother sprung to action after a would-be kidnapper snatched her five-year-old son from the street.

Dolores Diaz Lopez ran after the man and tugged desperately at the handle of his car door before eventually managing to drag her son, Jacob Diaz, through the front window.

The dramatic scenes played out in Queens, New York, on Thursday, as Ms Diaz Lopez and her children walked along Hillside Avenue in Richmond Hill at 8pm.

The man sprints from a parked red car and grabs the boy before dragging him back to the vehicle while another suspect, believed to be his father, waits in the passenger seat.

A suspect in the kidnapping has now been arrested after being spotted at Brookdale Hospital by police who were attending the site for an unrelated matter.

It is claimed 24-year-old James McGonagle, who has since been charged with the foiled kidnapping, also punched a NYPD officer in the face as he tried to take his finger prints, causing bleeding.

McGonagle is also charged with reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child.

Police are still searching for the second suspect, believed to be his 55-year-old father who is also called James.