A woman hit in the face with a brick during the Lidget Green trouble says she is not bitter, despite having to undergo major reconstructive surgery.

Julie Cook became lost in the back streets of Horton Grange while trying to find her way back to the motorway on Easter Sunday after visiting her sister.

She suffered terrible injuries when a brick was hurled through the side window of her 4x4 car, striking her on the right side of her face, smashing her cheekbone and eye.

She underwent more than seven hours of surgery and had to have titanium plates fitted in her head.

But today she said she is not bitter about what happened to her because she fears getting angry could harm her recovery.

She is more upset at the delay in getting an ambulance on the night. She says she was bleeding by the roadside for more than an hour.

The 39-year-old occupational health nurse, from Derbyshire, is staying with her mother and will not be able to work, drive, or ride her horse Adam for at least six weeks.

She is hoping to fully regain her sight but faces an anxious wait - and has been warned that if she does not take it easy, a torn retina could become detached, which would mean another operation.

"I don't feel bitter at all," she said. "It won't stop me visiting my sister in Bradford, although I will be a bit more cautious in future. This was a one-off incident and it must have been a one-in-a-million chance it happened to me."

She doesn't harbour any bad feelings towards members of Asian communities in Lidget Green.

"There's good and bad in every community and every race," she said.

"I am very, very grateful to a group of three or four Asian men in their 20s who helped me after I was hurt.

"I felt safe with them. They were protecting me and spoke to my family and the ambulance service on the phone, and in the end they flagged an ambulance down - stood in the road so it had to stop."

She said she felt let down by the delay and believes police and ambulance services in West Yorkshire should look again at their procedures in riot situations.

"I understand that the ambulance service do not want their staff put in jeopardy, but I pay my taxes and when I needed it the service was not forthcoming," she said.

"In the end the people helping me flagged down an ambulance and even though I was hanging through the window, the women inside were still quibbling about whether they were going to help me or not."

Michael Carroll, consultant in maxillo-facial surgery at Bradford Royal Infirmary, carried out a successful seven-and-a-half hour operation on Julie's face, when titanium plates were fitted into her skull.

Police have appealed for information from anyone who witnessed the attack on Julie's white Isuzu Trooper car, as it turned right from Horton Grange Road into Great Horton Road, at around 11pm on Easter Sunday, April 15.