A GRANDMOTHER was battered and bruised during a bizarre seagull attack yards from her Weymouth home.

Three birds repeatedly dive-bombed Delphine Mutch as she tried to get home from a nearby doctor’s surgery.

She tripped, landing face first on the pavement, where the birds – described as ‘something out of a Hitchcock film’ – continued to attack as she cowered on the floor.

Eventually, covered in blood, she managed to stumble to nearby OJos hairdressers to raise the alarm.

“When one of the girls heard my calls for help she came to the door and said, ‘Have you been beaten up?’” said the 49-year-old.

The grandmother-of-two, who is nursing a badly bruised face and pecked hand, also needs crutches after tearing her hamstring during the incident.

The nursery assistant, from Lincoln Road, Weymouth, has a bad track record with seagulls – while dodging an airborne assault in the same spot last year she was almost hit by a car.

On Wednesday’s 5pm incident, she said: “At first there were two of them swooping at me, but then a third joined in from another direction.

“I kept close to the hedge, trying to keep out of their way, but they just started swooping and swooping at me, really aggressively.

“I started to run and must have lost my footing and tripped on the pavement. I hit the floor hard, face first. But I was attacked while on the floor.”

She’d been returning from the doctor’s surgery in Ludlow Road, where she thought her husband, Alan, had an appointment.

“I’d gone past the birds on the way there, but I’d got the times wrong and Alan wasn’t there. I thought, ‘Oh no, I’ve got to go past those seagulls again’.”

After sheltering at the hairdressers, Delphine was treated by paramedics. Later in hospital, doctors confirmed she had pulled a hamstring and now needs weeks of uncomfortable physiotherapy.

She said: “I don’t know why I’ve been attacked. I’ve never done anything to annoy the birds. I was wearing purple, maybe they don’t like the colour.

“Something needs to be done, because if they swoop at a little old lady or a small child, someone could get really seriously hurt.”

A spokesman for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council sympathised with Delphine’s plight, but added: “We put up signage and do all we can to discourage people feeding the seagulls. Unfortunately at this time of year, because they are nesting, they can be aggressive.”