A FRAIL but brave 82-year-old great-grandmother beat off a burglar with her walking stick.

Lily Alty hit the intruder over the head forcing him to flee from her home in the Bedford area of Leigh.

She was sitting watching her television when she noticed a man crouching behind her sofa rifling through the drawers of her sideboard.

Mrs Alty, who is partially deaf, screamed at him and hit him around the head and shoulders with her walking stick. He grabbed her spectacle case from the sofa but dropped it and fled empty-handed as she continued hitting him.

She said: "I wasn't frightened when I was hitting him. At the time I felt like Hercules. I clubbed him with the stick seven or eight times. He didn't say one single word -- not even when I was hitting him and he wouldn't lift his face up to me."

She added: "After he had gone I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I thought 'he could have clouted me back'. It really shook me up and I haven't felt right since."

Police discovered the burglar had entered her flat by forcing front door locks. He had ransacked Mrs Alty's bedroom, before going into the living room.

She said: "He must have been searching for money but I don't keep any in the house. All this has made me nervous. I should have gone to a party the other night but I just couldn't. I've never been like that - I was really hard as a girl. All I can see is him crouching there. It's awful living in fear."

Even though the burglary has shaken her Mrs Alty insists she is staying put in her home.

Inspector Bill Dyke of Leigh Police said: "What sort of a coward targets an 82 year old woman?"

The burglar is described as white, wearing navy clothing and a navy blue bob hat.

Police are asking that anybody with any information should contact Leigh Police 0161 856 7248 or Crimestoppers on freephone 0800 555 111.