Rambler couple stuck for one HOUR on stile after being confronted by angry bulls

A pair of ramblers were left stranded on a fence for almost an hour - after being blocked in by two angry bulls.

Stricken Jennifer O'Malley and Dave Alden were quietly wandering through a field in Altarnun, Cornwall at the weekend when they were confronted by one of the huge beasts.

They ran for the safety of the next field but when they climbed the stile they found a second bull blocking their way.

Dave tried to make a run for it - but was butted back into the fence, suffering a painful cut to his wrist.

The petrified pair then decided to sit it out in the hope the menacing bulls would get bored and wander off.

But neither showed any sign of backing down, leaving Jennifer and Dave marooned for 45 minutes.

They eventually escaped by crawling sideways through a thick hedge between the fields, getting heavily scratched in the process.

Dave filmed their ordeal on his mobile phone to warn others about the aggressive animals.

His video opens with him panning around to show the two bulls on either side - each snorting and scraping the earth with their hooves as if poised to charge.

His commentary says: 'So here we are on a pubic footpath. This is the stile in the middle. We've got this bull on this side and this bull on this side.'

Dave points the camera at his wrist to reveal a bloody gash, adding: 'I tried going on this side - this is what the bull gave me when he pushed me into the fence.'

Jennifer said afterwards that the couple had no choice but to claw their way through thick brambles to escape.

She said: 'It was nearly impenetrable and we got scratched to bits but it was the only option we had.

'I've never encountered anything like it.

'We think the bulls were trying to get to each other, but they were snorting, bellowing and pawing the ground and we were stuck in the middle with nowhere to go.

'It really was quite awful and so terrifying it's put me off walking.'

The couple have now complained to the police and local council about the animals.

Experts said the bulls were likely squaring up to fight one another - and the two ramblers were simply caught in the middle.

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) said the worrying incident was 'mercifully very, very, rare'.

Spokesman Ian Johnson said while most farmers take their responsibilities and obligations very seriously, things very occasionally can go wrong.

He said: 'We don't know the exact circumstances about how the bulls ended up in the fields, but what happened sounds pretty traumatic.

'I've seen and heard bulls bellowing at each other and I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that.'