A WOMAN is “lucky to be alive” after being trampled by cows in a Dorset field.

The air ambulance attended, and one woman was taken to hospital on Saturday after the “cow attack” in a field near Tyneham village car park.

Witness Andrew Findley said the casualty “could have been killed” and that he was chased by the same cows a week before.

“There was a lady on the floor and she was absolutely battered”, Mr Findley said.

“She was covered in mud and cow muck, it looked like she had been rolling around in cow muck for ages, she was in a bad way.

“She walked into the field with her dog and the cows came running and trampled on her.

“Some people heard the screaming, went to distract the cows and this woman managed to get up and run to the gate and there she just collapsed.

“The ambulance arrived and treated her, she was in a lot of pain. The helicopter landed in the field where the cows were, everyone said don’t park there and the cows came straight at them.”

Mr Findley said the air ambulance parked in the car park after leaving the field.

He added that, since posting about the incident on Facebook, he has had a lot of comments about people experiencing the same problem.

“I ran through the field and the cows came at me,” he continued.

“I thought this is serious, I was waving sticks at them and they weren’t backing off, they were then feet from me.

“In the end I ran and jumped over a fence, I got away but it was not shocking to find somebody hadn’t got away.

“She is really lucky. Apparently, somebody heard the screaming and didn’t know where it came from, he reckoned it could have been 10 minutes of a sustained attack.

“Allow for exaggeration, even five minutes, she is lucky to be alive, it is only because somebody distracted the cows.

“She could have been killed, she really was in a bad way.”

A spokesperson for Dorset Police said: “We were called at 12.59pm on Saturday, May 15, by the ambulance service in relation to a report that a woman had been injured by cows in a field near to the Tyneham village car park.

“Officers attended to assist. The woman was taken to hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening or life-changing.”

South Western Ambulance Service said: "We transported a female patient to hospital by land on Saturday early afternoon after she was reportedly injured by cows in Tyneham."