WORCESTER, Massachusetts (WBZ) — A potentially rabid fox attacked a woman in Worcester, Massachusetts Friday in an incident that was captured on video.
It happened at about 7 a.m. on Esther Street. Video shows the fox running at the victim repeatedly while she tries to fight it off.
Witness Dahnyel Swenson said she saw the victim “running up the stairs, hitting it with the pocketbook, screaming” and she “got pinned against her home trying to fight this medium-sized fox.”
The fox then dragged the woman to the ground.
“It lunged at her so fast … she didn’t know which way to go,” said Swenson, who lives across the street and said she had just warned the victim about a recent fox sighting in the area.
Swenson said she noticed that the victim pinned the fox to the ground, so she and her daughter rushed to help. Swenson’s daughter managed to trap the fox with a green recycling bucket until the first responders arrived.
“There’s a hole in the bucket, so I had to get a rake because it’s viscous, it’s trying to come through the hole,” Swenson said.
Swenson grabbed a rake and a green recycling bucket, and her daughter managed to trap it under the bucket until first responders arrived.
The victim was hospitalized because the bites to her ankle and both hands drew blood, police said. Swenson said her daughter also went to the hospital because she had gotten blood on her during the incident.
“We’re taking all the precautions. Now she’s going through all the rabies shots series for the next week,” Swenson said.
The animal was euthanized, and its remains have been sent to a Webster Square Animal Clinic for rabies testing.
Worcester police said that hours earlier, someone reported that a fox tried to bite them near Gibbs Street. An animal control unit responded, but didn’t find the fox.
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