Briton Polly McCourt gives birth in New York street

Cian and Polly McCourt are already parents to two other children

A British woman gave birth in a New York City street after rushing out of her apartment as she went into labour.

Polly McCourt, 39, left her Upper East Side home on Monday and tried to hail a cab until she realised her baby would not wait.

Passers-by offered their scarves and coat to Ms McCourt and her newborn daughter, Ila, to keep them warm until emergency crews arrived at the scene.

Mother and baby were taken to hospital in good condition.

'Miracle on 3rd Avenue'

"She was like, 'Oh my God, the baby's coming,'" one witness told a Fox 5 television crew, which happened to be in the area at the time.

"And then I could see the baby's head coming out. As soon as the head came out, by the time we laid her down on the street the baby was out."

Ms McCourt gave birth on the pavement at the junction of East 68th Street and 3rd Ave.

She was smiling as she was placed in an ambulance and taken to Lennox Hill Hospital.

"A miracle on 3rd Avenue," a woman who helped deliver the baby told Fox 5.

Ms McCourt's Irish husband, Cian McCourt, who works for a law firm in New York, was stuck in traffic when he got the call.

The couple have two other children, Conor, six, and Adele, four, according to the New York Daily News.

They reportedly moved to New York four years ago from Dublin in the Republic of Ireland.

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