A woman who was stabbed nine times in a frenzied attack tried to stagger back to her housebound husband to make sure that he was safe.

Ann Driscoll, 82, a full-time carer for her husband Cornelius, suffered wounds to her body and neck during the attack, after she got off a bus.

She staggered towards her home a few hundred yards away in Harlesden, northwest London, before a member of the public went to help her and called an ambulance.

Lewis Burton, 19, a shop worker, described how he used his T-shirt to stem the flow of blood from Mrs Driscoll after finding her struggling along the street.

Mr Burton said: “I’ve never seen so much blood in my life. I was walking along on my way home from work when I saw the woman stumbling along with two Tesco bags. She could only just about walk.

“I ran over and asked her what had happened and she said someone had attacked her with a knife. She said, ‘I need to get home to my husband.’ She was really worrying about him and was so desperate to get to him. I just felt sorry for her because she was so determined even after being viciously attacked.

“I was speaking to the ambulance people on the phone and they told me to put something on her wounds, to put pressure on them, so I took off my T-shirt and put it on her stomach wound and someone gave me something to put on her neck. I was holding it on her neck and shortly after the air ambulance turned up.”

Nothing was stolen during the attack on Monday, which appeared to be random. Mr Driscoll was being cared for by social services yesterday while his wife had recovered sufficiently to give police a brief account of what happened.

Detectives are examining closed-circuit television footage from nearby shops to see if they can identify her attacker. He is described as white, aged between 30 and 45, with brown hair, and was wearing brown clothing. They are also working on the theory that he followed her off the bus.

Another witness, a 31-year-old woman who lives in the same street as Mrs Driscoll, said: “She was drenched from the neck down. She was caked in blood. It was as if someone had taken a bucket of blood and poured it over her.

“Someone had her sitting in a chair and she was coherent and with it, which was amazing. I heard her say to tell her husband.

“I was talking to her and asking what her name was. All she said was that the man who did it was white. She was clearly very much in shock. The boy who was helping her told me that she had been stabbed.

“The people helping were holding her belly and neck but she also said she had been stabbed in the back. She didn’t know the man who did it or why he did it. She told someone her address and asked them to go and speak to her husband and make sure that he was OK.

“It is unbelievably sickening. At 2.30pm a little old lady can’t go to the shops — it’s madness. She is a little old lady, she looks like someone’s nana. It is unnerving that someone is strolling around who is capable of doing something like that.”

Friends of the elderly couple visited Mr Driscoll yesterday and said: “He can barely speak to us. He is just devastated and he is crying. He couldn’t think why anyone would attack an old lady like this. He is just so upset.”

A police spokesperson said: “She is getting better and we have managed to speak to her. It looks as if she is going to be all right.”

Detective Inspector Ian Lott, of Brent violent crime unit, appealed for anyone who saw Mrs Driscoll in Harlesden High Street or Burns Road, where the attack took place, to get in touch.

She had been shopping in Harlesden High Street and was seen outside Tesco at about 2.20pm before catching a No 18 bus. She was carrying two Tesco bags and a green Marks & Spencer bag.

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