An 83-year-old woman, burgled while living in sheltered accommodation, is demanding an explanation for why her alarm system was not working when she tried to call for help.

Phyllis Hutchinson let in one man who claimed to be from Thames Water, but while her back was turned, he admitted an accomplice to her Littlemore flat. She spotted him going through her documents and went to pull an alarm cord which should summon help immediately.

But to her horror, none of the five pull cords located throughout her Cardinal House flat worked.

The two men escaped with £200, which she had withdrawn for a holiday. Her pension book was also taken.

Mrs Hutchinson said she had tried to get answers from Oxford City Council about why her security system - for which she pays £2.61 a week - was not working on the day of the burglary.

She said: "When I saw the second man ransacking my things, I knew I was in trouble. I pulled the cord, but nothing happened.

"I told the men to get out and fortunately for me they went. But I was terrified and running round in a panic pulling on all the cords. Then I went to a neighbour's flat but her cords are not working either.

"When you pay for safety you expect it to be safe."

Mrs Hutchinson was able to travel to France to visit her daughter Linda Brooke after her son-in-law, Wyn Evans, who is married to her second daughter, Marion, replaced her stolen money.

Oxford City Council's elderly services manager Jenny Robinson said: "Faults in the system like this are very rare. We check all alarms in our sheltered accommodation in the morning and in the evening.

"As soon as we were told about this fault we got the engineers out to fix it.

"We also told all residents in Cardinal House about these bogus callers."