A student from Harrow was punched in the stomach and called a stupid s*** as she tried to protect a runaway police horse from thugs throwing fireworks.

Daisy Greenaway watched in horror as protesters at the Anonymous Million Mask March in central London turned violent and began targeting the animals .

The 20-year-old was forced to pull a masked demonstrator from a horse which was racing through the streets after being spooked and throwing its rider.

She says when she intervened the man turned around and began trying to fight her while other protesters shouted sexist abuse.

Daisy, from Harrow, said: "It started quite peaceful until it got to Parliament Square and police began to separate people into groups.

"We went to Buckingham Palace and Green Park and there were lots of riot vans.

"When I got there a horse raced by and it didn't have a rider and was quite distressed.

"A guy wearing a sort of gas mask tried to grab one of the horses so I pushed him off of it, not just because it’s horrible for the horse but I was also trying to help him.

"He turned round and tried to grab me and he punched me in the stomach and was yelling at me.

"He called me a stupid slag and other people were saying 'this is why women shouldn't come to these things'. Someone tweeted afterwards saying I 'deserved it'.

"There were people watching and no one did anything. When he realised that I wasn't going to give up he walked off."

Daisy, who had become separated from her friends before the incident, added that demonstrators were deliberately throwing fireworks at the animals, while there have also been reports of horses being dazzled by laser pointers.

Met Police confirmed that an animal had suffered injuries and was returned to the police stables for treatment.

The University of Westminster student decided to stay at the demonstration after the incident and made her way to Regent Street where she said it was 'chaos'.

"People were throwing bins, traffic cones, glass - anything. Anyone who was there to do this was just there to cause trouble," she added.

Daisy, a vegetarian who feels strongly about animal rights, says the incident has made her not want to get involved with protesting again but she doesn't want to 'let them win'.

However she added that she probably won't report the assault to police as she feels there is 'no point' because of the level of crime already committed.

The march by thousands of anti-capitalist campaigners was under the banner of Anonymous - a loose collective of online activists and civil liberties activists.

It was intended to hit back at austerity measures and perceived inequality brought about by the Government.

Police say they have arrested at least 50 people and three officers were taken to hospital.