A young estate agent has been left with a black eye after being pounced on from behind in broad daylight and punched in her face in an unprovoked attack.

Elizabeth Noble, 22, was walking along a footpath in Haywards Heath, Sussex, on Saturday afternoon when an unseen stranger approached her from behind, grabbed her hair and punched her in the face, before running into the bushes.

Noble said: “It was a completely random and unprovoked attack really.

“I was just walking to my car just through the cut-through and just had someone grab my hair from behind, push me forward and then punch me in the eye.

“It happened so quickly, at the time I didn’t really have any chance to even think about things, it was like a flash that just went past.”

The estate agent unfortunately did not get a glimpse of the attacker.

She continued: “I said to the police like upon reflection and things, the size of what I felt of the hand that grabbed the back of my head definitely didn’t feel like a female average-sized hand, it definitely felt a lot larger.

“But also the force of the punch to the face, like that was done with some force.”

When she returned to her car, Noble drove a short distance down the road to make sure she wasn’t being chased and then phoned the police.

“The person who attacked me had gone into the bushes as soon as he had punched me in the face,” she added. “They must have got out of those bushes at some point before the police had got there. It’s whether anybody saw anyone like suspiciously running away or loitering around or anything.”

She is now working from the office at the estate agency while her facial injury recovers.

“At the moment it’s quite strange because I still feel like I’m almost in shock about it, it’s not really sunk in,” she said.

“So I think in time I will probably feel a bit more uneasy about things and watch where I’m walking and things and try and make it the most open route as possible but as the moment it’s still not properly sunk in what’s actually happened.”

Police took forensic details from her face and officers are conducting door-to-door enquiries.

PC Sam Chapman said: “We have had no reports recently of similar incidents or anything else that could be linked to this.

“We would like to hear from anyone who saw what happened or who saw anything else suspicious in that area on Saturday morning. You can contact us either online or by calling 101, quoting serial 654 of 19/06.”