A woman whose bag was snatched as she was having an epileptic fit in the street says she is now too scared to go out alone.

Shajmin Parul, from Collier Row Lane, was targeted as she lay unconscious outside Collier Row Library, at around 10.20pm, on December 23.

The 36-year-old said: “It makes me feel so sad and frightened. I don’t want to go out anymore unless I have got someone with me in case it happens again.”

Lucky

Shajmin, originally from Bangladesh, had just got off the 247 bus and was making her way home, when she suffered the fit.

At the time, she was on the phone to her brother, who realised what was happening, and called the emergency services.

Shajmin, who has lived in the country as an asylum seeker for four years, was found by ambulance crews and taken to Queen’s Hospital, Romford.

She said: “It is really lucky that I was on the phone to my brother, because I don’t know what would have happened.

“It makes me very sad to think that I was unconscious and instead of helping me, people were going through my bag.”

Shajmin noticed her bag was missing the next day when she was discharged from the Rom Valley Way hospital.

She searched at home, before looking for it outside the library in Collier Row Road.

When she returned home, she had a call from a rubbish collection team in Rainham who had found her bag, with a letter containing her address, in a bin.

Later, a good Samaritan returned her keys, also labelled with her address, after finding them in an alleyway.

She said: “I was really happy that I had my bag back, but I was upset because my bank card, my bus pass, my NHS card and �10 was gone.”

Shajmin first started suffering from seizures four years ago, when she fell down a flight of stairs, and has since passed out a number of times.

She said: “I am so worried that it could happen again.”

n Anyone with information should call the police on 101.