A WOMAN has issued a warning to Launceston pedestrians to be vigilant after she said she was attacked by two men while walking her dog last week.

Vickky Hughff was walking her Border Collie, Cass, on Ridgegrove Lane last Wednesday, January 17, at around 6pm when she said two men on pushbikes ran into the back of her.

She said she shouted at them to ask what they were doing before she was allegedly pushed into a hedge. After pushing back she was grabbed by her hair by one of the men, who she said tried to push her to the ground.

At this point, from what she could see, her dog bit one of the men on the leg. They then got back on their bikes and left.

She wrote a post on social media warning other dog walkers.

Speaking to the Post the morning after the ordeal, Vickky said she was OK but had not slept very well.

She said: “I was just frightened in case they do it to anybody else. I have been walking Cass down there for three years. It’s sometimes been 10 or 11 o’clock at night.

“He was off the lead, a few feet in front of me when he heard me shouting, he came back just at the right time I think.

“I’ve got long hair in a pony tail, one of them was trying to pull me, force me down on to the floor. From what I could see Cass came over, he bit the back of his leg, he shouted and then the blokes got back on their bikes.

“Everything happened so quick I probably wouldn’t even recognise them again. It was raining really bad and they had big, heavy coats on.

“I’ve lived in Launceston for seven years. I come from the North East and have always felt a lot more safer down here than what I have done back up north.

“I wasn’t hurt at all but it was just more shock.”

The men did not take anything, which Vickky said ‘makes it so bizarre’.

She added: “I don’t think they were trying to mug me. I don’t have any possible reason of why. Because I challenged them first riding into me, maybe if I didn’t they would have just carried on.”

Vickky lost her husband last September, which she said has made Cass ‘very protective’ of her. However, she said she won’t be walking in the dark on that road any more.

She said: “I’m not one of these that’s going to let anybody make me frightened. Obviously it was a scary ordeal and did shake me up last night, but I’m not just going to fall in on myself.”

Cass was alert for a few hours afterwards, reacting to every noise he heard. Vickky said: “He’s been my little star.”

She reported the incident to the 101 non-emergency police number, adding: “I said I didn’t want to make a formal complaint and have somebody out to me, there was nothing I could tell them apart from what I was telling them on the phone. I didn’t have a good description, it happened so quickly.

“I’m used to hearing about this up north. It’s sad it’s come to this in Launceston.”