OAKLAND -- A grateful Oakland family is crediting the Oakland police with helping them get two young children back safely after a domestic dispute turned violent Wednesday.

Police officers rescued a five month old baby girl from an apartment on the 58-hundred block of San Pablo Avenue and reunited her with her grandmother.

Officers also were able to remove the baby's 2-year-old brother from the home.

The children had to be rescued after a brief standoff with the children's father.

Police surrounded the home on San Pablo Avenue home after the mother called 9-1-1 for help. The children's mother agreed to talk to KTVU but asked we do not use her name.

"I was trying to leave with my daughter," she said. "He goes about yelling and screaming ..putting his hands on me...so I hit him... (and then he) comes chasing after me and basically starts attacking me," she said.

The mother said she was able to escape from the apartment, but that the children's father refused to let their son and daughter leave with her.

Police say officers arrived armed with rifles because they had received information that the father had weapons in the home. That did not turn out to be the case.

Within a half hour, police say they were able to convince the father over the phone to surrender peacefully.

Sgt. Jim Kelly was among the officers who went inside the apartment and found the toddler and his sister. "One was an infant, she was lying on a blanket and the other was about a year and a half..two years old ...just walking through the kitchen but they're both real good kids. As soon as they were crying ...we could actually hear them crying but as soon as an officer went through and picked them up , they stopped crying."

The children's mother expressed gratitude to the police officers for the safe return of her son and daughter. "I'm very appreciative . He's not a good father at all so I knew my daughter was not going to be taken care of at all. I'm glad they got her out of there and the other baby out of there."

The children's father now faces a felony domestic violence charge for allegedly attacking the mother.