Woman attacked by cows dials 999 - but police think it's a hoax

A woman in Lincolnshire who called 999 after being trampled by a herd of cows was dismissed as a hoax caller.

According to the local news service Puffington, 59-year-old Sarah Leonard was taking part in "geocaching", which involves searching for a hidden box using satellite tracking with a GPS receiver, when she was knocked over and trampled by a herd of stampeding cows.

She was left with a number of broken bones including two broken arms, a broken jaw, several fractured ribs and a fractured collarbone.

Despite her injuries, she managed to call the emergency services for help but Lincolnshire Police assumed it was a prank call saying: "This is a hoax isn't it, obviously", reports the Telegraph.

Police have released a recording of Sarah's 999 call which the call handler initially mistook for a hoax.

It took emergency services almost an hour to reach her because she could not give her exact location. She was eventually found after police traced her mobile phone signal.

Sarah was in a field with her dog in North Scarle, eight miles from Lincoln city, when the animals stampeded.

According to the Telegraph, a herd of about a dozen cows charged at Ms Leonard, knocking her over and trampling her, leaving her injured. Her dog ran away and was found a day later hiding in a bush.

Ms Leonard was taken to Lincoln County Hospital where she remained in intensive care two and a half weeks.

She was said to be in a stable condition after undergoing several operations and was put on a ventilator to help her breathe.



Lincolnshire Police said there had been no complaint made after the incident and said the recording of the call only captured the initial few minutes of a longer conversation.

A statement said: "The call lasted 48 minutes in total and all the time the caller was being spoken to, background work was going on to try to establish her exact location.

"There was never any delay in the police's response to the incident and everything was done with urgency to find where the caller was. Whilst all the work was being undertaken to locate the lady, the call taker kept talking to her to keep her calm and reassured, gaining as much information as possible from her. She was kept on the line until help arrived."

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