The knife-wielding attacker deliberately drove into the 17-year-old girl and then drove the two women into a nearby field where they fought their way out of his car while he lashed out and slashed the mother's hands. The two women fled to safety and raised the alarm.

The New Year's Eve attack on the women, as they walked their dog in a country lane at Netherton, near Newton Abbot, in Devon, bore similarities to the unsolved West Country murders of schoolgirl Kate Bushell and mother-of-two Lynda Bryant.

Lynda Bryant: Police are still hunting her killer

Devon and Cornwall police said the similarities between the latest incident and the two murders were "too obvious to ignore".

Detective Chief Inspector Tony Carney, leading a 30-strong investigation team, said that the New Year's Eve attacker was "a very dangerous man indeed" who posed a potential danger to women walking their dogs, and could strike again.

The women were walking their dog along a narrow lane when a blue-grey Vauxhall Cavalier saloon car drove by.

Several minutes later the same car came up behind them at a slow speed and deliberately drove into the daughter's legs.

When the mother went to see to her, the driver got out, held a knife to the girl's throat and said he would "cut" her unless they did as instructed.

The women were forced into the back of the car and were driven about three-quarters of a mile to a field.

Kate Bushell was found dead in November 1997

But the girl managed to grab the driver around his neck and the vehicle stalled, Det Chief Insp Carney said.

The women struggled to get out of the car, but the driver lashed out with what was thought to be a pen-knife weapon, causing severe cuts to the mother's hands as she tried to defend herself. The women fled to a house to raise the alarm, and the man drove off.

The 42-year-old mother has undergone surgery on her hand wounds in a Plymouth hospital where she was under sedation, the detective said.

Her daughter, who suffered bruising to her legs, was being interviewed again by police.

Similarities

Both 14-year-old Kate Bushell and Lynda Bryant, 41, were walking dogs in quiet country lanes when they were attacked.

In the Bushell murder, at Exwick, Exeter, in November 1997, police are still searching for a light blue Astra van seen parked in the lane near the spot where she was attacked.

A white van was seen parked near to where Mrs Bryant was killed at Ruan High Lanes, near St Austell, Cornwall, in October 1998.

Both women died from knife wounds. In each case police believe the motive was sexual, but neither of the victims had been sexually assaulted.

The latest attack took place just off the main A38 Devon Expressway, which leads from Exeter to the St Austell area.

The attacker in the latest incident also matched descriptions of the suspects in the two murders, who were also described as white, aged 35 to 40 and of medium height.

Senior detectives leading the murder inquiries have been informed of the latest knife attack.

Link not ruled out

Det Chief Insp Carney said there were no direct links between the latest attack and the two knife murders, but police were "alive to the possibilities" and there had been liaison between the officers leading the inquiries.

The latest incident might have been an opportunist attack, but a link with the two murders had not been ruled out, he said.