Councillor Dawn Davidson fought off two muggers while holidaying in Spain.

The Lib Dem Brighton and Hove city councillor, who represents Brunswick and Adelaide, was jostled and shoved in a crowded part of the capital, Madrid, by two girls while visiting with her husband, Dr Chris Davidson.

After being pushed again, she looked down and saw her handbag had been opened. Her purse with UK money, euros and her credit cards had gone.

Coun Davidson said: "I felt the girls were responsible for it so I followed them as they ran down a street."

She caught hold of one girl and asked her to return the purse. Then she chased after the other girl.

Coun Davidson said: "I began pulling at her anorak with its many loose pockets and again asked for my purse. The girl looked very shifty and denied in halting English she had anything to do with it."

She noticed the first girl had turned to look through the purse and try to get the money and cards out of it.

Coun Davidson said: "The second girl tried to stop me getting to the first girl. I pushed her out of the way and rushed at the one going through my purse. I knocked it to the floor and the two girls ran off with me giving chase.

"I was lucky. I didn't suffer any loss and wasn't hurt but it was a chastening experience."

Coun Davidson was on her own at the time of the attack, which happened in broad daylight.

It was in a busy part of Madrid, which she described as being like the corner of Bond Street and Oxford Street in London.

Coun Davidson said: "Whenever I was being bumped and jostled, these two girls were behind.

"Traders looked up at this mad English woman shouting and gesticulating in the street but they didn't do anything."

Next day, when she was with her husband, she saw the two girls again being questioned by police. She went over and told officers what had happened.

Her husband works at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Lib Dem group leader Paul Elgood said: "This is typical of her. She did what many of us would not have dared do. She is not a person to take this kind of thing."