A student who was the victim of a brutal and terrifying attack while at work says she is now too scared to go out alone.

Sophie Harris, 20, needed stitches after she was grabbed round the neck and hit with a bottle by a woman at a Carlisle off-licence where she worked part-time.

Sophie, a student at the University of Cumbria who was working at Bargain Booze on Denton Street, Denton Holme, said she cannot understand why she was singled out by her attacker or what she had done to provoke her.

Since the ordeal she says will only go out in Denton Holme if friends or family accompany her and she is still having occasional headaches as a result.

Speaking to the News & Star, she explained that her attacker had invited her to have a cup of coffee at her house on September 24 but she did not go.

"On the Thursday [September 29] I was working from 5pm and 6pm on my own and she came in then, asking me how I felt," Sophie said. "I said 'I'm fine' but she said 'How do you really feel?' It was intimidating. It was if she wanted me to say something."

Sophie explained that the woman then told her she was a counsellor and wanted to leave a telephone number.

"Being polite I let her write her number down," she added. "I had a shop full of customers at the time and she said she'd be back in two minutes with the number. She did come back and she left a number.

"She went and said 'Ring me whenever you need me'. I put the piece of paper to the side of my till and then Amy, who I was working my shift with, came in at 6pm."

Sophie said that she mentioned the fact she had spoken to the woman after her colleague arrived.

"We were quiet and we standing behind the till. It was about 6.30pm, or 6.40pm, we were talking and she gasped and said 'Soph!'.

"My back was to the window and I couldn't see out. She came in and the next thing she marched round the back of the till and came straight for me."

Sophie said that the woman grabbed her around the neck with both hands. "She had me against the window. I didn't have any balance and I was trying to press the panic button.

"She turned as if she was going walk off and grabbed a litre bottle of whisky off the shelf and whacked it off my head. I thought the whisky had burst but I looked at my hand and there was blood everywhere."

Sophie said she stayed on her feet and managed to press the panic button - but the woman just walked out of the shop.

"I looked in the mirror in the bathroom and I was head to toe in blood," she added. Following the attack, Sophie was taken to the Cumberland Infirmary where the wound, on her hairline, was stitched.

As a result of the terrifying ordeal, she has left her job and is yet to go back to university, where she is studying for a degree in working with families and children.

"I can't wash my hair because of the stitches and I just don't really want to go out," she said. "I went in Bargain Booze with my mam because I knew I had to but even with people being close to me in there, I wanted to get out."

She said she has also had flashbacks since. "On that first night I had to put the TV on and know there was a bit of light and sound that night. On Saturday night I did have flashbacks.

"It's surreal. Every time I walk about it I think 'This couldn't happen to me, it's like something you'd watch on telly'."

Cumbria police are appealing for any witnesses to come forward. A spokesman said: "We were called to Bargain Booze following a report that a 20-year-old had been assaulted by a 43-year-old woman.

"Her injuries were not life-threatening but anyone who saw what happened or has any information can call 101, quoting log number 291 of September 24."