A Good Samaritan told how he chased an attacker thought to have mugged two elderly women in the space of 20 minutes.

Graham Pittaway was cycling along Grosvenor Terrace, near Bootham, when he witnessed the first attack, which left a 78-year-old woman with serious wrist and leg injuries.

Abandoning his bike, he chased the young attacker down Bootham before grabbing the victim's handbag after the mugger dropped it.

"I just saw the woman lying right in the middle of the road at the top of Grosvenor Terrace and she told me she'd just had her bag pinched," said Mr Pittaway, a chef at the Nags Head in Heworth.

Only 20 minutes later, another 78-year-old woman, Mary Speed, was mugged outside St Luke's Church, in nearby Shipton Street.

Mr Pittaway, 43, said he regretted not catching the attacker, whom he thought was a young girl.

"She just ran off after she dropped the bag, but I wish I'd been thinking more quickly and had used my bike to chase her. Then that second attack might have been prevented," he said.

He was shocked no other bystanders tried to catch the mugger.

"People don't seem to want to get involved in case they get hurt themselves. I didn't even stop to think about it, I just started chasing the mugger," said the married father-of-one.

Police said the woman whose bag Mr Pittaway recovered underwent surgery on her wrist and hip on Saturday. She is expected to remain in hospital for another week.

On Friday, the Evening Press told how our sports reporter Claire Hughes was attacked and robbed in nearby Bridge Lane, but no passers-by helped. The following day we interviewed Mrs Speed, who said she would still go out, despite her ordeal, and praised a Portuguese student who came to her aid.

Updated: 09:57 Tuesday, September 14, 2004