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Rogue kangaroo floors broom-wielding 94-year-old

Berserk marsupial takes on cops, cops a peppering

A 94-year-old Queensland woman came off worst in an encounter with a rogue kangaroo which piled into her in the garden of her Queensland home.

According the the Courier Mail, Phyllis Johnson was hanging out washing at her Charleville granny flat when the battling beast bowled her over and gave a her a few kicks.

She recounted to the paper: "I thought it was going to kill me. It was taller than me and it just ploughed through the clothes on the washing line straight for me. I happened to have a broom nearby and I just started swinging at it. I bashed it on the head but it kept going for me; not even the dog would help, it was too frightened."

The "plucky bushie" was able to execute a "commando-crawl" retreat to her flat, and the "raging roo" was still outside when her son, who lives upstairs, arrived to offer assistance.

He wasn't able to persuade the animal to leave, even after deploying "a big stick", so the pair called in cops.

Stephen Perkins of Charleville Police explained that two officers attended the scene, only to have the kangaroo lay into them as well. He explained: "One officer had to deploy his OC [Oleoresin Capsicum, or chilli pepper] spray on the animal and it ran away and saw the other police officer out of the corner of its eye. The other officer also had to deploy his spray to keep from getting hurt. It's one of the many unusual calls we get out here."

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services and police eventually trapped the animal, and are pondering just what it was doing in the area.

Johnson, meanwhile, was reluctantly whisked to Charleville Hospital. The battling nonagenarian said: "I wasn't going to go but I was pretty bruised and scratched up. My son made me. I'm okay, although the roo took a chunk of flesh out of my leg and there's a chance they'll have to operate."

The Courier Mail has more and a snap of a recovering Johnson here. ®

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