A young mother and her two-year-old son have been doused in petrol and threatened with being burned alive during a horrific home invasion in northern Tasmania.
Two men wearing balaclavas kicked down the front door of the Launceston house on Wednesday morning wanting retribution against another man, police say.
When they couldn't find him they threatened to set the 23-year-old woman and her child alight.
Detective Inspector John Parker described the act as "horrific".
The woman is recovering in hospital, while her child escaped unharmed. Two of the woman's friends, at the house at the time, were uninjured.
The two men, believed to be aged between 30 and 45, stole cash and remain on the run.
