AN elderly woman was mugged in a vicious attack that left her housebound and unable to walk.

June Dinsdale, 68, needed eight stitches to a head wound after a thief grabbed her bag and pushed her into the road as she made her way back from a chip shop with a friend at 5.40pm on Wednesday.

June fell over in Stanley Street, Nelson, as she tried to hold on to her bag as the thief wrenched it away.

She was left with a large cut to the head, a grazed nose, a sprained thumb, a badly sprained ankle and cuts to her knees.

She said: "I will admit I was very frightened. I had major surgery a year or two ago and I didn't want to fall like that."

June was taken to Burnley General Hospital for treatment before being taken back to her home in Every Street, Nelson. She had to spend the night sitting downstairs as she couldn't walk to her stairlift.

June said: "I felt very tired and fed up to think he had spoiled an evening like that. We wanted to watch "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and I could have found better things to do than go to hospital and be wheeled about in bathchairs."

Police are searching for the thief who ran off down Albert Street, Nelson, with the large red patent leather handbag containing £50, bank books, keys, pension book and a beige purse. He is described as white, in his twenties and wearing a light coloured mac.

Detective Sergeant Mick Baker said: "We regard it as a very callous attack on a fragile old lady. She's now housebound, unable to walk and very shaken up.

"We would appeal to anyone who was in the vicinity and saw anything suspicious, or anyone who knows this man, to contact us."

Anyone with information can call Detective Constable Tony Atkins at Nelson CID on 01282 472645.

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