The victim of an attempted carjacking has spoken out about her ordeal after hearing it happened to another woman in the same car park.

Helen Whiteley-John, 39, was walking towards her car in Lower Queens Road in Buckhurst Hill at 6pm on January 10 when two young men approached her from behind and demanded her keys.

She said: “I thought they were going to ask me for directions and they told me to give them my keys. I said no.

“One of them bundled me down the side of the car, he had hold of me and was telling me to give him my keys.

“He said if I didn’t scream then I wouldn’t get hurt.

“The other one was at the end of the car. I had dropped my shopping bags on the floor.”

Mrs Whiteley-John, from Ongar, tried to get free but the man managed to grab her keys from her bag.

As he began to reverse her car a passer-by jumped into the passenger seat.

“He drove by and I screamed for help,” she said.

“The man jumped into the car and shouted at the man, whatever he said he must have scared him because they got into a dark blue car parked down the side of the bottle bank and drove off.”

The have-a-go hero drove a white Mercedes and is believed to be called ‘Lawrence’.

It is though he could be a drinker in The Railway Tavern.

The men are described as young Asian, in their 20s and wearing dark hoodies and jeans.

They are also described as "quite well spoken".

Mrs Whiteley-John now believes signs should be up warning the public after hearing a woman was attacked in the same car park a week before.

Sarah Woods was approached by two men fitting the same description, who were in a blue car, on January 3 and had her phone and bag stolen.

Mrs Whiteley-John said: “To me, it sounds like the same people.

“There should have been some kind of sign up to tell people it had happened, so that women can be on their guard.”

Another violent attack took place on Friday.

A 27-year-old woman was walking towards her car in Buckhurst Hill Tube station car park at around 6.45pm when a man approached her with a screwdriver.

He ordered her to hand over her keys and purse, before driving away in her Mercedes and crashing into another car parked outside the Railway Tavern pub.

The attacker is described as white, aged between 18 and 20, 5ft 7ins, of slim build, with short dark hair.

He is said to have been wearing a red top, light blue jeans and white trainers.

Detectives also want to trace the driver of a silver Smart car which was seen to leave the car park at the time of the theft.

A police spokesman said today that they are not linking all three attacks as they were different in approach.