A dog walker who was attacked by a “big fat cat” in a village street fears it could seriously injure a child.

The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, was out with her husband and cocker spaniels Lexi, nine, and Dolly, three, in Kiln Way, Halling, when the black and white cat appeared.

It first went for Lexi before attacking the woman’s legs.

She said: “The cat appeared out of nowhere. It jumped out of a bush and went for Lexi - then went for me three times.

“It was a big fat cat. I was quite surprised because it was overweight and it still moved really quickly. It was very aggressive and it was just a totally unprovoked attack.

“It was chasing me still trying to attack me which kind of shook me up a bit to be honest.

“My legs were exposed and I couldn’t even move the cat with my foot to get it off as I would have lost a flip flop.

“It then followed us and I was trying to walk away quickly but I had blood everywhere going down my leg and was in a lot of pain from all the scratches.

“We got round the corner and I ended up having to give my husband the dog because it was just absolutely killing me holding the dog and trying to walk with all the blood pouring down.

The attack, which happened on Sunday just before 9pm, left the woman with scratch marks all down one leg and Lexi had a cut on her nose.

She continued: “It really shook me up because I’m a very animal-orientated person and I love cats so I’ve thought maybe the cat’s not well.

“My old dog who died nine years ago attacked me but he had cancer and we didn’t know he had it, so that was his way of telling us.

“I don’t know if something's wrong with the cat or what really.”

She has been walking the route for around six years and had never seen the cat before – although her husband said he had seen it sitting on a wall previously.

“We haven’t walked that way since,” she said. “We’ve been walking in the other part of the village which is a shame because the girls like walking that way as there’s a lot of open space.”

She booked a doctor’s appointment to get the scratches checked, as they were deep and “still quite red and prominent”.

Since posting about the ordeal on Facebook, another woman came forward who thinks she was attacked by the same cat.

No one has claimed the cat as theirs.

She said: “I just want to make other people aware in the village because there’s a lot of children who walk their dogs in the area where it happened.

“I don’t want another incident where a child gets seriously injured or they could even lose an eye.”