Kangaroos rarely attack humans. Senior-Sgt. Stephen Perkins, head of police in the Queensland state town of Charleville, said he had never before heard of police using pepper spray against one — but that the tactic worked.

"It did subdue the animal and drew its attention away for the officers, so it worked," Perkins told The Associated Press.

The 94-year-old victim, Phyllis Johnson, was taken to a hospital for treatment for cuts and bruises after the attack Sunday afternoon. She told The Courier Mail newspaper that she tried unsuccessfully to fight the kangaroo off with a broom after it attacked her while she was hanging her laundry.

"I thought it was going to kill me," she told the newspaper from her bed in Charleville Hospital on Monday. "It was taller than me and it just plowed through the clothes on the washing line straight for me."

She said the kangaroo knocked her to the ground before she crawled to her house, where her son called police. The AP could not immediately contact her for comment Tuesday.

AP