A Cambridge research engineer has been seriously injured in a freak attack by a stag in the Scottish Highlands. Dr Kate Stone, 30, was on a walking holiday with a group of friends near Fort William. Returning from a ceilidh in the early hours of Monday morning, the group came across a stag that was trapped in her friend’s garden. It bolted towards Dr Stone and impaled her on its antlers, wounding her face, chest and neck.

An ambulance arrived soon after the attack to take Dr Stone to the Belford Hospital in Fort William. However when doctors realised the severity of her injuries she was flown to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow for specialist treatment. There are fears that she may be left paralysed by the attack. A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said she was in a "serious and stable condition”.

Dr Stone, who completed a PhD in physics and microelectronics at the University of Cambridge, is now a research engineer at the Institute for Manufacturing. She also runs her own printing technology company Novalia. A statement released by Novalia said that doctors operated on Dr Stone yesterday afternoon to repair damage to her windpipe: “The operation went well and she remained stable throughout”. She is now in an induced coma and will remain so for the next week.

A neighbouring resident suggested the stag may have targeted Dr Stone because she was the tallest member of the group of seven friends on the holiday, and therefore might have been perceived as the leader.

However Jim Stone, the owner of the house whose garden the stag found itself in, said: “It really was the most freak accident. Severn of us came down the dirt track with torches and in my garden there was a fully grown stage. As we came in, it panicked and the only way out was the gate. It came through us and got Kate…It didn’t attack her. It was trying to get out. It was a hellish freak accident.”