A garden centre's cat has been rehomed after an unprovoked attack on a three-year-old girl in Tunbridge Wells.

Little Sophia Hanson was left traumatised after the incident, which took place on September 28 after she took part in a puppy "socialisation class" at the Blue Diamond centre in Eridge Road.

The garden centre is familiar to the young family who are regulars at the kids' play area within the shop.

Today, centre management confirmed the cat is being moved to a new home.

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The attack occurred in the Tunbridge Wells Garden Centre

A spokesman said: "Blue Diamond Group have recently acquired Tunbridge Wells Garden Centre over the past two weeks from Wyevale Garden Centres and understand that the store cat has been on site for the past the years.

"We are extremely sorry for this incident and we can confirm that the cat is being removed to a suitable home later this week."

'It came running out of nowhere'

Sophia's dad Simon Hanson told KentLive the attack came out of nowhere.

He said: "My daughter was watching the dogs play in their pens when the cat suddenly came running towards her along the counter and started slashing at the back of her head with its claws.

I was standing about a metre away and ran over but it managed to get five or six hits in."

The cat was chased away from Sophia who was left bleeding from the head and in a state of shock.

"My daughter was traumatised" said Simon, "We took her to minor injuries and when she came home she slept for three hours."

I’m just grateful she was turning away from the cat because if she wasn’t there could have been damage to her face and eyes" he added.

Sophia was left with cuts on the back of her head after the unprovoked attack

After the incident, Simon spoke to the manager of the centre and asked him what he was going to do with the cat.

In Simon's view, the initial response was unsatisfactory: "On Friday (October 4) he conceded that the attack was completely unprovoked and the fault of the cat.

"The cat is clearly stressed and in the wrong environment.

"It was originally a rescue cat. I spoke to the woman who runs the charity it’s from and she said it sounded out of character."

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