What should have been a quick walk back to their holiday home turned into a nightmare for four Canadian tourists ? including a pregnant woman ? in one of two senseless acts of violence against tourists in Bermuda over the last week.

Cara MacDonald from Toronto and her three friends were enjoying their first trip to Bermuda and had already had three glorious days of sunshine.

The four woman had just dined at Tio Pepe restaurant and were walking back to their rented holiday home on Frith Estate Road, when they were attacked.

In a telephone interview from Canada last night, Mrs. MacDonald said they had asked the waiter if it was safe to walk back to their house.

"He said it was an affluent area and was perfectly safe and, since we'd done the eight-minute walk during the day, we thought it would be alright," she said.

They could not have been more wrong. At roughly 9.20 p.m., she and her three friends reached Warwick Camp. "I heard someone walking behind us and turned to tell the man he could pass because we were holding him up, but I'd hardly moved over when he lunged at my pregnant friend and pushed her to the ground," she said.

Mrs. MacDonald said he grabbed her clutch bag and then lunged at Maria Morsillo, who was also holding a clutch bag. "He pushed her to the ground and jumped on top of her and started punching her. He must have punched her about 20 times in the face and head," she said.

Ms Morsillo was left dazed and bleeding on the ground with an enormous, swelling bump on her forehead.

Mrs. MacDonald also suffered punches and bruising to her chest and arms and a cut on the elbow.

"I was hysterical," she said. "I was screaming and punching him, but it was like being a flea on a bull. He was a big man and it didn't make him stop."

She said another friend had run into the road and tried to get someone to stop and help. "Several cars and a couple of mopeds continued driving past and they just ignored my friend who was in the middle of the road, waving her arms and desperately screaming for somebody to stop," she said.

Eventually a retired Police officer came to their rescue, but the assailant had fled toward Chaplin Bay.

Yesterday, Mrs. MacDonald said she felt it was important for other visitors to Bermuda to be aware of the possible dangers. "When we were looking at coming on holiday here, they were selling Bermuda as one of the safest places," she said, adding that on their third day on the Island, they unfortunately became aware of the fact that it was not.

"The Police made no attempt to identify the culprit while we were still in the country. They could have shown us pictures of known criminals for identification purposes and/or pictures of members of the Bermuda Regiment."

She added: "I got a good look at the attacker. He was clean-cut, very large and athletic looking. The kind of guy that would fit a military profile."

The women were taken to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where Ms Morsillo was treated and her pregnant friend was kept for observation.

"She could have lost the baby," Mrs. MacDonald said. "We were all very scared."

When they returned to Canada, Ms Morsillo suffered dizziness and blurred vision and yesterday had a CAT scan, she added. The four friends left Bermuda on Monday.

In an equally horrifying but separate incident, another Canadian woman, Anna Arrunda ? who was visiting her brother and his family on the Island ? was randomly attacked at Dockyard on Thursday, April 21.

"I went to Dockyard to visit my brother and was enjoying the beautiful weather," she told. "I was sitting in the gazebo near the ferry stop talking to my brother and a friend when my brother got up to go across the street to the shop."

A tearful Ms Arrunda said she sensed someone approach from the side and thought she heard the person say something. When she turned her head to see who it was, she felt a sharp pain to her face.

"This woman just hit me with something solid and heavy," she said. "I fell to the ground and there was blood everywhere. I was stunned and dazed and didn't know what had happened."

Ms Arrunda said by the time she lifted her head and tried to get to her feet the woman was gone.

"I thought it was the same woman I'd seen earlier in the day," she said. "She had been sitting on a bench staring at me when I sat on the grass. I told my brother about it, but he laughed it off."

Ms Arrunda said someone called the Police and an ambulance arrived to take her to hospital. She received several stitches to the gash above her left eye and bruising to her cheek and eye.

"Someone told the Police that the woman had run onto the ferry and was hiding on it," she said. "The ferry pilot had not left Dockyard and was waiting for the Police to arrive."

Despite the horrible experience, Ms Arrunda said she bears no ill will towards the woman who attacked her. She hopes the woman will get some help.

Visibly shaken and crying last night, she said she would never feel safe again and will have to seek counselling herself.

"I'll have to go and see someone when I get back to Canada," she said.

The Department of Tourism had called her to apologise for the incident, she said. They even sent her flowers.

"I don't want them to try and sweep this incident under the carpet," she said. "People need to know that these things happen here in Bermuda."