DETECTIVES are hoping security television footage may help catch a "vicar" who launched a terrifying road rage attack on a shocked mother and her daughter.

Ann Killen, 48, and daughter Sara, 21, were showered with glass as a man, who was dressed as a clergyman, used his briefcase to smash a rear window in the car.

He walked briskly away and was lost in the crowds but detectives are studying CCTV footage in the hope of revealing his identity.

Mrs Killen told yesterday how the attack happened as she was edging her Fiat Punto through heavy traffic and stopped at traffic lights in Percy Street, in Newcastle. Sara was in the back seat.

The lights turned to green and Mrs Killen began to move - but the clergyman stepped out in front of her.

She braked and sounded her horn prompting the clergyman to scream threats and hammer with his right fist on the windscreen, making both women yell out in panic.

He then walked to the side of the car and slammed the black briefcase he was carrying into the window shattering it.

The vicar turned on his heel and walked quickly away as the shaken women sat in shocked silence.

Mrs Killen, of Cramlington, Northumberland, said: "Vicar or not, he needs to be caught because I think he is dangerous."

The man is described as being in his fifties, of medium height, with dark grey hair which was thinning on top.

He was wearing a black shirt, black trousers, a dog collar and a light coloured jacket. He was also wearing some sort of identification badge around his neck and carrying a black briefcase.

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: "The victim gave a very clear description of this man and it appears he was a clergyman of some kind.

"He was certainly wearing a dog collar and dark clothing. Everything about him suggests he is a vicar."