With reports of daylight muggings and on-street attacks increasing in Dublin, we can't stress how important it is to look after your personal safety when walking alone.

Of course, in some cases, adrenaline tends to kick in whether you mean it to or not, as happened with stylist Courtney Smith earlier this week.

The Dublin fashionista was walking along Ormond Quay in the city centre on Tuesday when she was the victim of an attempted mugging – but she says she managed to fight the thief off.

"It probably wasn't the wisest thing in the world to do as I saw afterwards there was another guy with him," Courtney recalled to the Irish Independent.

"But I was just acting on pure adrenaline."

The scariest part of Courtney's experience is that it happened in the middle of the afternoon, long before dark.

"It happened in broad ­daylight as I was walking down the quays," she said.

"I felt a little tug on my bag and then it felt as if someone was rummaging in my handbag and I saw this guy out of the corner of my eye trying to take something out of my bag.

"Then he went to take the bag off me and I basically boxed him in the shoulder and shouted something like, 'what are you doing?'

"He just sauntered off with the other guy without saying a word."

Courtney tweeted shortly after the incident, saying she hoped her "right hook left a mark" on the anonymous attacker.

To the asshole who tried to mug me on the quays… I hope my right hook left a mark!

— Courtney Smith (@CocoSmithStyle) February 16, 2016

We hope so too.