A FRIGHTENED young woman has described the “terrifying” moment she was attacked on a train before her boyfriend rushed to the rescue.

Charlotte Kilbey, 20, was travelling between Colchester Town Station and Hythe Station at about 9.10pm on Tuesday with her partner.

All of a sudden a man, wearing all black joggers, a cap and earphones, viciously snatched Charlotte’s bag from beside her before trying to flee.

Unbeknown to the heartless thief, however, Tom was nearby and immediately jumped to his girlfriend’s defence, snatching her bag back from crook’s grip.

Gazette:

The attacker, who Charlotte has described as being roughly 5ft 9in tall, apparently attempted to playdown the incident, bizarrely claiming he was only joking.

Charlotte said: “As you walked down the train you could only see me, as my boyfriend was lent against the window and you couldn’t see him from behind,”

“My bags were beside me and a man grabbed my bag from beside me. He proceeded to say to my boyfriend it was a prank. I just want to make people on the trains aware.”

Following the shocking incident, the Colchester Institute student says she immediately contacted the police to report what had happened.

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Charlotte, who works in Thorpe-le-Soken and lives in Great Bentley, has now admitted being both shaken-up and annoyed by the ordeal.

She added: “I’m a small girl and if was in my own I would have been too scared to jump up and get my bag back.

“I am so angry this actually happened to me and it is quite terrifying.”

The latest incident comes just months after sex offender Samuel Creed, then 21, was jailed for touching a woman’s foot on a train between Manningtree and Colchester.

The Gazette has contacted both Greater Anglia and the British Transport Police for more information.