A north London neighbourhood has been terrorised by two crows, with one woman left bleeding and bruised after an attack from above.

Two crows around Ravenswood Crescent in Rayners Lane reportedly began swooping down on people at the beginning of June.

One resident, Shan Maraj, claimed that a woman had to take shelter in a neighbour’s house after a crow dive-bombed her from behind, leaving her scratched and bruised.

She said: “A woman was attacked. She had to run into one of the neighbour’s houses, someone who she didn’t even know. The crow attacks you from the back.

“This woman had cuts and bruises and blood - she was quite traumatised. It’s horrible – these crows are quite big.”

Shan added that the neighbourhood had never had a problem with crows in the past, with the attacks beginning around two weeks ago.

She has avoided walking past the tree the two crows perch in due to her fear of birds, but witnessed one man running for cover after he was dive-bombed.

Shan said: “I saw a man running in front of my house and he just escaped into his car as this thing swooped down.

“We’re all avoiding the tree. Unfortunately, it’s just around the corner from me.

“But there are children living on this street and people are scared to go out.”

Some residents now want Harrow Council’s pest control to take action, after multiple reports of people and pets being attacked.

Harrow Council has said that its environmental services team visited the site on June 7.

The authority said that there was no sign of either of the crows reported by residents.

The council claimed that this was the first time in many years that this sort of issue had been raised.

It added that it would require a special licence to control the birds.

A spokesperson for Harrow Council said: “We’ll keep monitoring and if the problem persists, we’d advise the resident gets back in touch.

"However, our knowledge shows that birds in May and June may be defending their nests and their young and the problem will stop once the nesting time ends.”