Abbie Keers tells of Stanley beer bottle attack
A nine-year-old girl left scarred after a glass bottle was thrown at a car she was in has spoken out about the attack.
Abbie Keers, from east Stanley, County Durham, was a front seat passenger in her grandmother's car when the beer bottle smashed through the side window.
She needed emergency surgery to remove glass from her face.
The youngster, who has been praised by police for the way she handled the attack on 14 February, said she thought a car tyre had "popped".
Abbie was with her grandmother Sarah Webb, mother Clare Webb and sister, three-year-old Lexi, when the bottle was thrown from the entrance to a pedestrian subway on the A693 in Stanley at about 22:30 GMT.
'Watch her bleed'
Abbie said: "We were just driving along and I was playing on my iPad and then started dozing off. Then the bottle came through the window.
"I thought my gran's tyre had popped because it was more like a bang than glass breaking.
Her grandmother added: "We could see there was glass in her face, but we couldn't put any pressure on it to stop the bleeding. We just had to basically watch her bleed until we could get her to hospital.
"She is doing really well now and we're all proud of her. She is handling it better than me.
"We thought it might have affected her mentally and that she might be afraid to get back in the car. But she's been super.
Insp Michael McGowan, of Durham Police, said Abbie was a "very brave little girl."
"This has been quite a traumatic incident, but she has handled things really well," he added.
Police have yet to make an arrest.