Woman dies after being stampeded by cows as she walks her dog

Sandra Pearce is thought to have been knocked to the ground when the cattle charged across a field as she tried to control her "boisterous" pets.

Diners at a nearby restaurant in the Suffolk countryside rushed to help when one of the dogs ran in shaking and covered in blood.

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Miss Pearce, a 45-year-old probation officer, was found lying in the field. Air ambulance paramedics spent an hour trying to save her life before pronouncing her dead. Sources said yesterday she had "substantial external injuries".

An ambulance service spokesman said: "There is a query as to whether she died of her injuries or a cardiac arrest before or during the incident."

Experts yesterday said the 20 brown and white Simmental cows and one bull may have been protecting their four calves from the dogs.

Lili Gooch, 48, from Hackney, East London, was having lunch at the restaurant on a farm in South Elmham, near Bungay, when Miss Pearce died on Sunday.

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She said: "It sounded like the cows were going mad because we were hearing so much mooing. When the woman's Jack Russell came in with blood all over and shaking like a leaf there was a lot of commotion. Somebody was on the phone and then the helicopter came. The cows looked quite menacing. They had a few calves and were being completely protective of them.

"I had seen the woman earlier, putting leads on both of her dogs. They were quite feisty and boisterous and she was being pulled along by them."

Miss Gooch's friend Dean Reynolds added: "The dog was battered and bruised and shaking and bloody and had obviously been kicked or trampled."

Miss Pearce is believed to have travelled from her £200,000 detached bungalow in nearby Worlingham, where she lived alone, to walk on footpaths through the South Elmham Hall farm estate.

John Sanderson, who owns the estate, tried to resuscitate her. He said: "It is a tragedy. It was a complete shock."

A page on the farm B&B's website describing the herd as "gentle" was removed yesterday. A statement said the trails had been closed until further notice "in view of tragic circumstances".

There were 46 trampling incidents involving cows from 1996 to 2006, including seven deaths. Last July a 65-year-old man was crushed to death by cattle near his home in Wigan.