The attack — in which five other people were also targeted — was so sudden and violent that the 42-year-old thought she had walked into a lamp post.

The Caversham woman, who does not want to be named, was left with blood streaming down her face and unable to see after her glasses were smashed and knocked off her face.

She was one of six people attacked by a man police believe had walked out of the Hope Tap pub in Friar Street, before setting upon strangers for no apparent reason as they were making their way home from town centre offices last Wednesday evening.

Speaking from her home after being released from the Royal Berkshire Hospital, where she was treated for cuts to her face and head, she said she was in West Street on her way to catch a bus home from her office job when the attack happened.

She said: “It happened so fast I honestly thought I had walked into a lamp post. It was that quick and I woke up flat on my back.

“I could not see anything because my glasses were broken. The last thing going through my head was getting the next bus.

“I was aware I was drawing a crowd and I was very lucky that there were three first aiders who were looking after me.

“I feel rather vulnerable and quite scared that you are not safe in town in the day time.”

Doctors treated her for cuts and bruises to her face and head as the force of the punch caused the lenses in her glasses to come flying out, slashing her face.

Her mother rushed to the accident and emergency department to be with her daughter and found her to be scared and disorientated, particularly because she needs her glasses because of her very poor eyesight.

The victim said she now feels “vulnerable and scared” to walk the town’s streets as she recovers from her injuries.

She said: “I do not go out after dark in Reading for that particular reason or I at least make sure that I am with friends or in pairs.

“But you do not expect to get jumped in rush hour in the centre of town.”

Terry Thomas, 28, of South Street, has been remanded in custody after admitting five assaults by beating, one assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one affray on Wednesday, February 25. He is due to be sentenced at Reading Crown Court in four weeks.