WAITRESS "Alice" wept today as she told how she was seconds from being raped or murdered.

The 24-year-old relived her ordeal as she revisited the site in Brighton where a sex attacker dragged her to the ground.

The man pushed her face into the road surface and started pulling off her clothes.

Alice said: "I thought he was going to murder me or at least rape me."

She struggled and fought back, screaming for help, and at one point a car passed by, slowed, but drove away.

Her ordeal continued for at least five minutes before a neighbour ran out in her nightdress and slippers.

The woman shouted at the man and the attacker fled.

Alice said: "That woman saved me. She was so brave and I can't thank her enough."

The attack happened at 2.30am on Thursday in Clifton Terrace, near the junction with Dyke Road.

Alice, the victim's middle name, spoke for the first time to appeal for help to catch the offender.

She said: "I was terrified and I would not want anyone else to go through what I did."

She was walking home after an evening out with friends when the attacker pounced.

She said: "I was petrified and kept screaming and screaming, but no one came to help me.

"It seemed like ages before the woman ran over. She arrived in the nick of time - I was getting tired and feeling helpless."

Alice, who has a degree and wants to make clothes for movies, suffered bruising and cuts to her face and was deeply shocked.

She has hardly eaten or slept since.

Her mother, who has travelled from her home in the Midlands to stay with her, said: "Alice is a lovely, sensible girl and was in a well-lit street - it is terrible you can't walk in the centre of a town in safety."

Det Con Dick Bidmead, heading the inquiry, appealed for witnesses, particularly a woman who witnessed the assault.

The attacker was 20 to 30, about 5ft 8in, with short, dark hair, and wore pale-coloured jeans and beige jacket.

Anyone with information should contact Mr Bidmead on 001273 606744.

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