A woman who escaped the clutches of a knife-wielding abductor just hours before Bradford on Avon woman Melanie Hall was snatched 13 years ago has relived the ordeal and said: "It could have been me".

Linda Hamblin, then 42, was pounced on in a Bath car park, just half-a-mile away from the Cadillacs nightclub where 25-year-old Melanie was last seen in June 1996.

The man said: "Get into the car or I'll slit your throat", before Mrs Hamblin fought him off and was slashed across the hand.

Police never caught her attacker but suspected he targeted Miss Hall, of Bradford Leigh - whose remains were found by the M5 motorway on Monday - because he failed to snare Linda.

Last night mother-of-one Mrs Hamblin, now 54, revealed how her "blood ran cold" when she heard the news that Miss Hall's body had finally been found.

She said: "When I heard about Melanie my blood ran cold. I thought: 'My god, that could have been me'. It really hit home.

"I never saw his face, that was the problem. He attacked me from behind.

"A policeman rung me the day after the attack and said: 'Do you know that Melanie Hall was taken?'

"And of course I didn't, and he said: 'We think it has a connection. We think because he didn't get you that he went for someone else, and we think it's Melanie.

"That was what they thought at the time.

"I had such mixed feelings when they said that. I was very sad that Melanie had been taken, but relieved that that wasn't me.

"Everyday I think I'm lucky."

University graduate Miss Hall vanished in the early hours of June 9.

Hours earlier Mrs Hamblin was attacked as she got out of her car at Manvers Street car park - which is next door to Bath Police Station.

She left her car to purchase a ticket, but realising she hadn't brought enough change with her returned to the vehicle to root through the centre console for money.

Linda did not hear her attacker's footsteps approaching, as she leaned over the driver's seat into the centre of the cab, but felt the sudden grip of a left hand at the back of her head.

The man's right arm immediately circled her throat, pressing a knife to her before he ordered her into the car.

She said: "I saw the knife when I looked down. I thought, 'Oh my god.'

"Then this voice said: 'Get into the car or I'll slit your throat.'

"I thought, 'If I get in the car with this man he's going to do awful things to me and my son and my husband are never going to see me again.

"'I'm going to end up in a field or a ditch somewhere.'

"There was no way I was going to stay there. Even if he'd slit my throat I would've been there and someone would've found me. "It was preferable to never being found at all.

"I just pushed myself back as hard as I could and screamed as I was doing it. As I came up he sliced all my hand and took all my skin off."

She added: "To this day I think, 'My handbag was there, so he could've taken my handbag if he wanted it.'

"He didn't want to take my bag. I still can't think about what he would've done if I'd got in the seat. What did he think he was going to do?

"He reeled back from the force of me when I threw myself backwards. I don't think he thought I was going to do that.

"As far as I can remember I pushed back as hard as I could and he let go and walked away.

"He was very clever because if he'd run he would've alerted attention.

He just calmly walked away. But all I ever saw was his back."

Sales assistant Mrs Hamblin, who had been in Bath after dropping off her son Chris and husband Allan at a cricket match, described the man as between 5ft 9ins and 5ft 10ins.

He was sandy blond and quite "thick set," but from the one sentence he ever spoke to her she could detect no accent.

Mrs Hamblin, of Cardiff, had to have an operation to graft skin back onto her hand after the attack, but the memories of the event have left more lasting scars. She has offered her support to the Hall family.

She said: "I feel so sorry for her and her family. What they must be going through right now is horrendous.

"Has that bag been there for 13 years? Has she been somewhere else?

"There's so many more questions now - but hopefully they will finally get some answers."

A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police said: "This attack has never been solved and we are not ruling it out of the investigation into Melanie Hall's death.

"We appreciate that it occurred on the same night and we are obviously keeping an overview on the incident, which is also related to another ongoing inquiry."