Katherine Jenkins tells of rape attempt ordeal

Classical singer Katherine Jenkins has re-lived her "terrifying" ordeal when a violent attacker tried to rape her.

The 29-year-old said she was punched and thrown against a wall as she struggled to escape from the man, whose face she will never forget.

The attack happened while Jenkins, who was then a student, became separated from friends following a night out.

She said in an interview with Piers Morgan: "I was walking across the bridge, near Paddington, and as I crossed this sort of gangway which went down to the station I felt suddenly someone too close to me and he, within seconds, was in front of me trying to drag me down this gangway and the police believe that he was trying to rape me."

Jenkins told how she tried to fight back, saying: "I wanted to kill him, I was so angry about it.

"I remember him grunting at me and the weirdest think about it was that he looked so normal, he looked like he had just come out of the pub and had a normal office job, you know like a guy in his 30s ... and so he started dragging me and I remember my purse was there, so I knew he wasn't just trying to mug me 'cos he could have just snatched my purse."

Somehow, she managed to escape the man's grip.

Jenkins continued: "I thought 'My gosh, I'm going to get away from him' and I ran, in massive heels, across the road and I got to the other side and there was a big wooden wall and I thought 'Yes, I'm actually going to get away' and then he punched me ... he kind of threw his weight against me and I hit the wooden wall and then I just thought 'Right, he is actually going to try and rape me' so if I can get in a ball on the floor ... then he won't be able to do it.

"So I did that and he kicked me a few times and tried to get me to open up, and that didn't work ... and then eventually he just looked at me and I just said 'What do you want?'

"And he said 'Well, just give me your purse then,' so I gave him my purse, which didn't have much money in it because I was a student, and he ran to the end of the road and then stopped and looked back at me and laughed."

The Welsh opera singer added: "And I'll never forget his face ... it was such a lucky escape."

Jenkins said that there was no CCTV and the man was never caught.

She told Morgan her attacker "is still out there and I was pretty terrified and I think I still will look over my shoulder even now".

Jenkins also broke down on the ITV show as she talked about the death of her father Selwyn who had lung cancer.

She was aged just 15 at the time and was about to take her GCSE exams.

The full interview will be screened on Piers Morgan's Life Stories: Katherine Jenkins on Saturday at 10pm on ITV1.