A BLANDFORD woman was left with antler wounds to her hip when an aggressive stag charged her at the start of the rutting season.

Sharon Green-Buckley was walking along a beaten track in Arne, near Wareham, to take some wildlife photos, leaving her husband with her five-year-old son, when she came face to face with the sika stag.

She recalled: "There were deer everywhere, which were allowing me to get quite close and then running off but this stag did not move.

"I realised when I got to within a few feet that it was going to charge so I instinctively turned sideways so that it could not pierce me in the stomach.

"I was thrown to the ground and luckily I was carrying a fleece, which was punctured by the antlers through four thicknesses before they made contact with my flesh.

"I was petrified that it would keep attacking but it stopped and stood there ready to go again the minute I moved. Rather than look it directly in the eye, I averted my eyes and spoke to it softly. It did not go away but slowly backed off.

"I began to look at the damage and as I suspected, blood was pouring from my side. The white dress I had on made it look even more spectacular.

"After about 10 minutes I inched my way to about six or seven feet from it and slowly got up and hobbled away. I would not go back to the car until I met up with a couple other walkers and they helped me back."

Sharon, a human resources manager with Network Rail, was told by the park warden that she was lucky not to have been killed, especially as the attack occurred just before 6pm when most visitors had gone home.

It is, however, the first attack of its kind that wardens could remember.

To compound her misery, Sharon then had to wait several hours at Poole Hospital's A&E to receive treatment before she decided to take a taxi home.

"A £50 dress ruined, a £30 fleece and £27 on the taxi home and was not even seen. I have had better Saturday evenings," she said.

Sika stag are a Japanese species but are widespread throughout Purbeck.

Robert Underhill, a deer expert with the Deer Initiative, described the attack as "unprecedented".

"They are not normally dangerous, although big males can become aggressive. Sikas are more aggressive than the other species. They do get very charged up and this must have been a stag with a big dose of hormones," he said.