Matthew Diebel

USATODAY

Disturbing surveillance video released by the New York Police Department shows a fake cab driver attacking the children of a woman he tried to sexually assault in his car.

The man, described as a Hispanic and in his 40s, picked up the 26-year-old woman and her three children, ages 5, 3 and 1, in Upper Manhattan on Sunday, police told local newspapers.

When the car arrived across the East River in Elmhurst, Queens, the driver stopped at the rear of a hotel and began to sexually assault the woman in the vehicle, the New York Post reported.

The video above shows that when she resisted, the man turned violent.

He first pulled the 5-year-old from the car before elbowing her in the head, knocking her to the ground, and then grabbed the 3-year-old from the car and flung the child onto the sidewalk like a rag doll, according to the New York Daily News.

The youngest child, being held by the mother, then falls to the ground during the fight before the man gets back into the car and flees while the woman desperately tries to retrieve her belongings.

The children were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, according to officials, who pleaded for anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.