A PRACTICAL joke in which two boys planted a stink bomb in an elderly lady's shopping bag has left her anxious in her own home.

Joyce Ross, 81, of Wyke Regis, Weymouth, said two children who targeted her on the way to the bus stop were probably harmless, but warned people not to make the elderly victims of their pranks.

"It was only a joke, but I am an older person and I found it scary. It could have caused a heart attack to someone my age.

"The smell was awful and there was a load of white smoke coming out of my bag. I had to take the shopping out on the pavement. Now at night I feel like I can't breathe and don't know if it is the shock of what happened," Mrs Ross said.

The boys, whom Mrs Ross guessed to be about 10 years old, approached her at about 2pm.

"I was walking out from Dumbarton Road to get the bus to see my daughter when a lad came along, and another on a bike, and started talking to me.

"He was asking me if I was going to the beach. They must have been taking my attention away from my bag. Then they both left on the boy's bike," Mrs Ross said.

After smoke started coming from her bag, a passing bus driver pulled over to help her.

"My bag smelled terrible afterwards and I had to wash it," she said.

A Dorset Police spokesman said: "In this case what was quite possibly meant as a joke had the opposite effect on the elderly victim.

"We hope that this case will act as a warning to other young practical jokers."