A KEY-WIELDING attacker assaulted a woman in a North Yorkshire street, leaving her needing a tetanus injection.

Christine Smith, of Rockcliffe Court, Tadcaster, was on her way home with husband Geoff when she felt a sharp searing pain down her left arm.

Moments earlier, her attacker – a woman in her 40s – had smiled and whistled as she clutched a set of keys and walked by, said Christine, 49.

But as the woman walked passed, she turned on Christine in an unprovoked assault.

“One minute she was strolling along as happy as anything, the next thing I felt like I had been stabbed,” Christine said.

Christine and Geoff had just got off the bus stop at Tadcaster bus station at about 1.30pm on Friday and were walking near the Golden Horse pub when Christine was turned upon.

“Geoff was walking near the roadside and I was walking next to him,” she said. “As the woman passed I felt a sharp pain all the way down by arm”.

As Geoff inspected the damage, Christine said it was clear her arm had been sliced with a set of keys, breaking her skin.

“I don’t know why she attacked me. One minute she was fine, the next she sliced her keys down my arm, screaming something at me then ran off.”

Brave Christine decided to follow her attacker while phoning the police, resulting in an arrest being made by officers’ minutes later.

As the skin on her arm had been broken in the attack, Christine had to have a tetanus shot in her arm. She said her arm is now bruised and swollen and very painful.

Police have released the arrested woman on police bail while inquiries into the incident continue.

Christine’s attacker is described as about 5ft 1ins tall, in her 40s, with shoulder-length black hair, and at the time of the attack she was wearing a white shirt-dress, black tights, a black cardigan and white shoes.

Witnesses to the attack should phone North Yorkshire Police on 0845 60 60 247.