Three injured after kangaroo attacks family

A woman is seriously injured after trying to protect her husband from a six-foot kangaroo in Australia.

Linda Smith, 64, suffered a collapsed lung, broken ribs, cuts and other internal injuries after the male kangaroo attacked her husband Jim on Saturday evening.

The couple have been feeding kangaroos and wallabies from their home in Millmerran, about 125 miles west of Brisbane, Queensland, to help them survive the region's drought.

Mrs Smith grabbed a broom to fight the six-foot kangaroo off her husband - who suffered cuts and bruises - but the animal knocked the broom out of her hand and turned on her.

She said: "Jim was on the ground and the kangaroo just kept at him.

"I went outside to try and help him and took a broom and a piece of bread but he knocked the broom out of my hand then attacked me."

The woman's 40-year-old son, Sonny, "came out to try and help me and hit him over the head with a shovel", she said.

He also suffered minor injuries.

There are more than 46 million kangaroos in Australia, according to government figures, but Stephen Jones, senior operations supervisor at Queensland Ambulance Service, said it was rare for them to attack humans.

He added: "They are known to attack and can be quite vicious, particularly the large males but it is something that is uncommon, something that I haven't come across in my 30-odd years in the service."

Brisbane's Courier-Mail reported that Mrs Smith was in a stable condition at Toowoomba Hospital.

Mr Jones said that, had she not intervened to save her husband, he might have suffered more serious injuries.

"The outcome may have even been death," he said.

The kangaroo jumped away before paramedics arrived at the scene but Mrs Smith said she did not want it to be hunted and killed.

"I am always careful, especially of the males," she said. "It's breeding time so they can be more aggressive.

"I don't want this kangaroo to be hunted down and killed, I love animals.

"I do understand what happened but I have never seen one that aggressive - it was in there for a fight and it wouldn't back off."