A great grandmother in Britain became so angry when she got mugged that she pinned the man against a wall and demanded that he return her purse. 'I'm no spring chicken,' she declared later.

Marion Walter, 77, fought back when the mugger attempted to snatch her purse from the back seat of her car while she was returning from a supermarket with her 90-year-old sister.

Walter is just over five feet as compared to the six feet tall mugger.

But that didn't deter her from grabbing him by his lapels and holding on to him till he handed back her purse. He then fled.

'It was not bravery, it was just instinct. He had my purse. If I had thought it through properly, he could have had a knife,' Daily Express quoted her as saying.

She and her sister Doris Smith were approached by two eastern European men in the car park.

Walter, who lives in Droitwich, Worcestershire, said: 'As we got into the car I put my purse behind my seat. I saw two men gesticulating at the back of my car so I got out to ask them what they wanted.

'It was then that I noticed one of them crouching down and taking my purse. I was moving and he had to get up, so I caught him. I got him pinned against the wall and had him by the lapels. He didn't offer any resistance.

'He kept saying 'Everything is all right', but I was so angry I told him 'It's not all right', and wanted to know if he had taken anything else. He gave me back my purse and I let him go and he ran away.'

She added: 'I think we were targeted. I'm no spring chicken.'