Police were today hunting for a 21-year-old man after a woman was found with serious injuries at a house in Cottingley.

Emergency services were called to the house in Airedale Avenue at 12.19am today following reports of a disturbance, which neighbours believe involved a mother and her son.

They found the 43-year-old woman, who lives at the house, with serious head, facial and chest injuries. She was in a stable condition at Bradford Royal Infirmary today.

An 18-year-old man also involved suffered slight injuries to his arm. He was treated at the same hospital and released.

Detective Inspector Shaun Berry, of Keighley CID, said they were urgently seeking a man connected to the address who left following the incident. He is white, aged 21, 6ft 3ins tall and wearing a yellow and white Leeds United football top. He was driving a White Suzuki Swift, registration R145 EWW, which police said was a "family car".

Det Insp Berry said the public should not approach the man if they see him or the vehicle, but contact the police.

"The person we are seeking has links with the address where the disturbance took place," he said.

One neighbour, who did not want to be identified, said the whole street was shocked by the incident.

"It's shocking. Apparently it was her son who attacked her," she said.

Another neighbour said she was woken up early today by a noise which sounded like "animals howling".

She said: "There was this awful wailing and screaming from the house. You could not tell if it was animal or human.

"I couldn't see what was going on but there were people in the garden and someone was shouting 'Janet, try to stay awake'."

She said she saw a man drive off at speed with the car lights off and after emergency services arrived she saw the car driving past the house a number of times.

Police stayed outside the house throughout the night and the garden was cordoned off with blue and white tape. Today, a team of forensic experts were searching the house and a police helicopter was overhead looking for clues.

Anyone with information should contact Keighley CID on (01535) 617083.