POLICE are investigating claims that a woman was attacked in the Cloister Gardens behind Malmesbury Abbey on Friday.

The incident is alleged to have happened at 10pm when the woman, from Malmesbury, received cuts and bruises after she was punched and kicked around her shoulders and face by a single attacker.

The woman did not need hospital treatment but was unable to provide a description of her assailant because of the shock of the attack and because it was dark at the time, say police.

A police spokesman said: "We believe the injuries were inflicted as part of a fight which took place.

"We are treating this as an isolated incident and we do not believe there is any danger to other women."

Police believe there were up to 30 witnesses in the area at the time and have appealed for them to phone them on (01666) 822222.

The attack is the second in the cloister gardens in the last two months.

A 15-year-old-school girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced to a three-month referral order by magistrates in Chippenham after hitting her 13-year-old friend six times in the face.

The assault happened after the attacker had drunk a litre of cider while with friends in the cloister gardens at around 6.30pm on Easter Sunday.

Last month the parochial church council took the decision to close the gates to the churchyard on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights in a bid to stop youths urinating and vandalising the abbey and the churchyard.

Bill Sykes, the vice-chairman of the Malmesbury and St Paul's Without Residents' Association, this week called for more bobbies on the beat.

"A lot of the local population are very fearful about going out at night," he said. "That is an amazing statement to make in Malmesbury, and it is a situation which cannot be tolerated.

"We have got to have increased police patrols in the town and also an increase in the vigilance of local people in reporting incidents."