NOTORIOUS kidnap mum Karen Matthews was spoken to by police after she was involved in a heated row outside a Reading supermarket.

The disgraced mum, who conspired to have her daughter kidnapped, drugged and concealed from her entire community was seen in Reading town centre. 

Matthews recently hit headlines again after the dramatisation of her story, starring Sheridan Smith, was televised.

A local mum said she spotted Matthews from the window of a bus as it travelled through the town centre.

She said that Matthews and another woman who was with her appeared to be snapping photos of children on their mobile phones outside Poundland before an angry mob stopped them.

The mother, who did not want to be named, watched the drama unfold from outside Sainsbury's supermarket in Friar Street before the crowd, which was demanding to take Matthews' phone and delete the pictures of their children, swamped her and the bus moved away.

The witness said: "All of a sudden I saw all these people run, and shout and throw abuse at her basically.

"You could tell it was her. And everyone was shouting it too.

"I don't know exactly what happened, and I don't know exactly what was said. People were just saying: 'Can I have your phone, to remove that picture of my child?'."

Matthews, now 42, was living in East Anglia but was relocated to an unknown location after people hurled abuse at her when the TV show rekindled interest in her terrible crime.

After the incident outside Sainsburys', social media was full of vitriolic posts about Matthews being spotted in the town centre.

The poster urged other parents to be on the watch.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said officers were called to a disturbance in Friar Street, Reading, involving a woman in her early 40s.

The spokesman said: "We were called at 2.45pm on Thursday June 29 to reports of an argument between two women in Poundland on Friar Street, Reading.

"Officers attended, both parties were spoken to and the incident was resolved. No offences have been reported."

The Ministry of Justice said the incident was a local policing matter.