Pensioner dragged along by cycle muggers

Two youths on a mountain bike grabbed a pensioner's handbag and dragged her along the ground as she clung to it, and the attack was captured on a closed-circuit security camera, police said yesterday.

Mrs Nora Ryan, 69, was taken to Manchester Royal Infirmary with a broken shoulder and face and leg injuries. She had been walking on Stockport Road in Longsight, Manchester on Monday when the teenagers pounced.

The pair, aged around 17, took her bag, with a bracelet, two rings and £300 inside. Mrs Ryan, who has 11 children and 30 grandchildren, had been out to buy presents for them. She cannot wear her jewellery because of severe arthritis and did not like to leave it at home.

"They just came at me from the side, out of nowhere," she said. "They snatched the bag and I clung on - I should have let go but it was just instinct to hold on.

''I won't be going out on my own again and I won't carry a handbag. It has really put me off going out. I'm still in shock.

"When I close my eyes I see what happened and I can't get it out of my mind. I feel absolutely rotten, there's so much pain in my shoulder and the stitches above my eye are painful. I never thought anything like this could happen to me in broad daylight. It is despicable.

"I just hope the publicity does some good and they catch them and stop it happening to someone else."