Police spray stops unruly roo

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A rowdy kangaroo had to be tackled with pepper spray after an unprovoked attack on a woman bringing in her washing.

As she unpegged the washing in her Queensland backyard, Phyllis Johnson, aged 94, noticed a blur of red fur. Then the large kangaroo barrelled through the line, knocked her to the ground and kicked her several times.

"I thought it was going to kill me," said Mrs Johnson, recovering from her injuries in Charleville Hospital yesterday. "I happened to have a broom nearby and I just started swinging at it. I bashed it on the head, but it kept going for me. Not even the dog would help; it was too frightened."

Cut and bruised, and with a large gash to her leg, she eventually fled indoors. When her son, Rob, came home from church, he found the roo lurking in his shed, still itching for a fight. Although armed with a big stick, he was unable to persuade it to leave. He and his mother then called the police, who subdued it with capsicum spray.

It was not clear where the kangaroo - which was eventually removed by wildlife officers - came from, or why it was so combative. Mrs Johnson, who is about 160cm tall, told the Courier-Mail: "It was taller than me, and it just ploughed through the clothes on the washing line, straight for me."

After trying to beat it off, she retreated into her granny flat. By the time her son arrived, the roo was in his workshop.

Undeterred by his stick, "it had a bit of a go at me", Rob Johnson said.

Two police officers who arrived at the house found themselves under attack, and had to spray the kangaroo - still aggressive, or perhaps just frightened - with capsicum.

Rob Johnson speculated that the animal had been kept as a pet, and said he hoped it would be relocated away from residential areas.

"It's not frightened of people at all; it's a real danger," he said. His mother, though, could "see the funny side of it", he added.