A WOMAN was today recovering at home after being viciously beaten as walked through a York park.

She was left with a black eye, broken nose and other cuts and bruises after Sunday night's unprovoked attack in St Nicholas Fields urban nature park, Tang Hall.

York police today described the incident as a "terrifying ordeal" for the woman and said it was being treated very seriously.

The woman said she was told by police that it was the third such incident in recent weeks.

The victim, who is in her early 40s, was too shaken by the attack to speak today, but her daughter urged other women to be on their guard.

She said her mother had been walking home from a friend's house through the nature park when she heard footsteps behind her.

It was around 11.30 and she was just minutes from home.

She looked around her and could see nothing, but moments later she was grabbed from behind.

Her attacked put one hand around her throat while his other arm pinned her arms to her sides.

When she started struggling and kicking out, she was repeatedly punched in the face.

"He was smashing her in the face and she was pretty badly beaten," said the daughter.

Her ordeal ended after more than a minute when she was able to scream for help and run from her attacker.

Her daughter said: "My mum was all right last night but today what happened is starting to sink in.

"The injuries to her face are starting to swell up and she is very shaken."

The daughter said her mother was perplexed as to the motive for the attack.

"It doesn't seem like a sexual assault as she wasn't dragged into the bushes, and her bag wasn't stolen so it wasn't a robbery, so maybe this man just gets his kicks out of scaring people," she said.

She added: "It's terrible that you can't even walk home without something like this happening."

Inspector Ken Gill, of York police, said: "This was a terrifying ordeal for this lady and we are following up a number of avenues to identify the offender."

He was unable to confirm if there had been similar incidents recently in the area.

He urged women to take precautions when walking alone in unlit areas.

Gordon Campbell-Thomas, project co-ordinator at St Nicholas Fields, said he was shocked about the attack.

He said it had been decided not to put lighting in the urban nature park.

"This is because it is an open piece of land and we don't want to give people a false sense of security," he said.

"People can use their own judgement about walking through."

Updated: 16:10 Monday, April 23, 2001