A paramedic call handler is living with flashbacks after being attacked while walking her dog.

Mhairi Cotton was exercising her Australian kelpie, Rudy, at Milton Creek Country Park, near Sittingbourne, when she was dragged into bushes before having a piece of material placed around her neck.

The fiend made off when the 29-year-old’s pup started to bark, though Miss Cotton could not get a good look at them.

The 999 controller called the police who met her at the park before escorting her home.

Miss Cotton said: “I was taking my dog out over Milton Creek Country Park and we went over the railway bridge and along a path which takes you next to some trees.

“It all happened really quick. A guy came from the side, put something around my neck and my dog was going really mad. I’ve never seen him like that before.

“The person clocked my dog and ran away towards Swale Way.”

Officers took swabs of her hands and kept her jumper as part of the investigation.

“It’s just scared me and made me wary of going anywhere on my own, I take the dog with me everywhere now,” she added.

“I’m having flashbacks.

“I just want to make people aware. It’s a lovely park, I like it and this doesn’t happen every day but it’s just to remind people to be vigilant.

“If it had happened to someone else I think I would want to know about it.”

A police spokesman said officers are investigating a report of a woman being assaulted by a man not known to her near Gas Road, Sittingbourne, at about 5.15pm on Friday, June 12.

They added: “Enquiries into the circumstances surrounding the incident are ongoing.”

A Swale council spokesman, which manages the upkeep of the park, said they were aware of reports of the assault and urged anyone with information to report it on the police non-emergency number 101 and reference number 46/99289/20.

Read more: All the latest news from Sittingbourne