A WOMAN suffered facial and head injuries and her daughter narrowly escaped being hurt by a heavy traffic cone thrown from a multi-storey car park.

The incident happened as Susan Hobson, 34, and her 11-year-old daughter, Sophie, were making their way home from the centre of Billingham, Teesside, at 12.30pm on Saturday.

They took a familiar route along a cut next to Boots, but before Ms Hobson realised what was happening, she was knocked unconscious by the cone thrown by a thug in the car park above.

When she came to, she was surrounded by a crowd and an ambulance had been called.

The mother-of-one, of Sidlow Road, Billingham, said: "The cone had either hit me in the face and made me fall back, or it had hit me on the head and I had fallen face down.

"I was taken to North Tees hospital, where they checked me out and tried to clean me up, but they said I would have to go to the plastic surgery department at Middlesbrough General."

Ms Hobson suffered a badly cut lip and head, a black eye and a chipped front tooth, as well as cuts and bruises.

She is angry over what happened, and said it could easily have been worse.

"I look like Quasimodo," she said. "The cut is near a health centre, so if someone had been there with a baby, or it had been an old person, it could have been a lot worse.

"The traffic cone bounced off me and tapped Sophie - I'm just glad it didn't hurt her."

Ms Hobson praised her daughter for fetching help, but said the incident had left her badly shaken.

"She says she won't go under the cut again," said Ms Hobson.

PC Deborah Stelling said police had been unable to discover who threw the cone.

"I'm aware that children play on the top of the car park with skateboards, but there are generally no problems," she said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact PC Stelling on (01642) 302410