A LIPHOOK woman, who endured the terrifying ordeal of being forced to drive more than 20 miles at knifepoint after she and her car were hijacked in the village, has relived her horrifying experience.

She was slashed across the face by a knifeman at one point, on the late-night journey to Portsmouth ferry terminal, as a warning of worse to follow if she failed to co-operate. Ginny Goulding (55) has spoken to The Herald of her "fear and relief" after the nightmare drive.

The horror began when Mrs Goulding, who was on her way to pick her husband up from work, stopped at temporary traffic lights in Longmoor Road, near Bohunt School, at 10 pm last Thursday.

Two men jumped into her car and demanded that she drove them to the ferry port.

One man jumped into the front passenger seat, and the other, wielding a knife, sat behind her in the back.

"It all happened so quickly. I was on my way to meet my husband after work, and before I realised, they got in and said 'Ferry port! Drive! Drive!

"I didn't think, I just drove," said Mrs Goulding

"The man in the front appeared to be in charge andspoke with an East European accent.

"The other one didn't speak any English, just grunted back when the first one spoke to him," she said.

In a bid to draw attention to herself, Mrs Goulding deliberately drove erratically and at speed along the A3, A3M, A27 and M275.

"I tried to zigzag and they kept telling me to go faster and faster," she said."I was going 80 mph and I was just praying that a police car would notice; any other time and I would have been stopped! I also thought if I drove badly they might get out."

Mrs Goulding said that although agitated, the hi-jacker in the front seat seemed to know where he was going.

"When we got to the ferry port they both jumped out and ran off," she said.

"I was most worried just before they got out, because I didn't know what they planned to do with me.

"When they left it was with a mixture of fear and relief," she continued.

Although still in shock, and bleeding from the knife wound, Mrs Goulding started driving away as soon as they left.

"I don't really know the channel port area, so I was just trying to find my way out," she said. Eventually she found a nearby 24-hour petrol station and called the police.

Her facial injury did not require hospital treatment and Mrs Goulding was reunited with her husband by 11 pm.

Recovering from her ordeal this week, Mrs Goulding said although the cut on her face "looked horrible at the time", she had been assured it would not leave a scar.

She said she was trying not to think too much about the experience which she described as "surreal".

"It all seemed like it wasn't happening to me, like an episode of The Bill," she said, adding that her only concern during the one-and-a-half-hours the incident lasted, was that she would be late in meeting her husband.

"Suddenly it hits me what has happened and I feel very low, but I'm very lucky because my friends and relatives have been very supportive."

Police checked the passengers at the ferry port but failed to find the men.

Both men are described as foreign with olive complexions, and neither spoke much English. The man in the front was aged 30 to 40 with long, bushy, dark hair. He wore a dark-coloured waist-length leather jacket.

The man in the back was in his early to mid-20s with dark hair and wore a light-coloured fleece with a hood over his head.

Police want to hear from anyone who saw the vehicle during its journey, men fitting the descriptions in the Liphook area Thursday night or from anyone who saw such men near the Portsmouth continental ferry port after 10 pm.

p Contact Alton CID on 0845 045 45 45.