Inspector Chris Poole was surrounded by 50 half-ton beef cattle, which repeatedly butted and stamped on him.

He was rescued by the Shoreham-based Sussex Police helicopter and survived a second life-threatening ordeal in hospital when one of his broken ribs severed an artery.

Recovering at his home Insp Poole said he wanted to warn all walkers to give cows a wide berth.

The 50-year-old officer said: "I worked on a farm and with cattle when I was a youngster and always told people not to worry about cows and said they never attacked.

"Little did I know."

He was walking his ten-year-old Golden Retriever "Zak" on the South Downs near his home and decided to put him on a lead as they entered the cattle field and continued along a designated footpath.

He said: "Suddenly, one cow started mooing and then others began running towards me.

"There were about 50 of them, some were cows with calves but all were fully grown.

"We were surrounded but I wasn't scared and waved and shooed them away as they came close.

"They were focused on Zak and became more agitated as they got nearer and nearer.

"Then I felt this cow butt me hard in the back.

"I fell to the ground and let go of Zak's lead.

"There were hooves all around me and I was being repeatedly head butted as I lay there.

"I felt my ribs go. One cow stood on my arm and broke my watch, and I suffered a gash on my head."

The cows became distracted when Zak fled and Insp Poole seized the moment to get up, stagger to a gate and escape.

He made his way to a barn where he saw a Land Rover and a man out with his two dogs: "I sank to my knees, holding my chest.

"I could barely breathe."

The dog walker and another man and two women, one a former nurse, came to his aid and minutes later the Sussex Police helicopter arrived to take Insp Poole to Eastbourne District General Hospital.

He recognised a PC on board the helicopter. "He was one I had recruited just before leaving the unit nine years ago.

"It was ironic I should become a patient of theirs."

Bystanders held on to Zak and Insp Poole managed to telephone his wife, Jill, a 46-year-old author.

She joined him in the hospital's accident unit.