A woman was rushed to hospital after being kicked from behind and then stamped on by a kangaroo at a golf course in Australia.
The 69-year-old was surprised by the large kangaroo who then mauled her on the ground at Arundel Hills Country Club on the Gold Coast this morning.
She was taken to Pindara Private Hospital with head injuries and needed stitches to her face while suffering cuts also to her arms and legs.
A Queensland Ambulance Service supervisor told how the marsupial had knocked the woman to the ground from behind and then was stamped on several times.
Joel McEwan reportedly said: "The patient was quite upset at the scene — obviously it's a shock being attacked by quite a large kangaroo."
She had apparently been walking down a fairway at the golf course when the kangaroo struck.
Mr McEwan said the worst cuts were to her jaw.
"The lacerations were sustained after the kangaroo kicked her," he told nine.com.au.
Australia has four species of kangaroo with the eastern grey the most common in Queensland, while the others are the red, western grey and antilopine.
Kangaroos are not usually dangerous to people but they can attack if they feel under threat.
"The reality is that they can be aggressive towards people," Queensland's Department of Environment and Science reportedly said. "Although the risk of this happening is very small, we still need to be wary around them."
There have also been two other reported attacks this month by kangaroos in Australia.
In one a 14-year-old girl suffered ruptured organs after a kangaroo jumped at her motorbike.
Jemima Song said she was with her sister on dirt bikes on a remote farm in western Victoria when the kangaroo kicked her to the floor.
She was left unconscious on the floor after the collision.
"I was on the ground lying there and she (her sister) was wondering if I was faking it or not so she tried to pick me up to see if I was okay but I wasn't," Jemima told 7news.com.au.
Her father David Song said he was worried she may have died.
"The worst fear was going through my mind that we were going to lose her," he reportedly said. "She had this massive trauma to the left side of her body, it looked like she had just been hit by a car."
An air helicopter took the teen from the farm in Beremboke and flight paramedic Stuart Hill said Jemima's helmet saved her.
"Jemima was really lucky," Mr Hill said. "It could've been a lot worse had she not been wearing protective gear."
