An alarm for if you are attacked outside

[Chamomileteaplease]

Can anyone recommend a key ring type alarm that you can hook to your bag that you could activate if someone attacked you?

Just started thinking about this and thought it sounded a good idea.

The one I was looking at has a pin you pull out which sounds rather too fiddly in a frightening situation. Do you have a good one?

I was advised against having a loud personal alarm while at uni, the police gave a safety talk and said that usually people didn't respond to that type of noise and that it could put you in more danger - has that changed?

A pin does sound pretty fiddly but I guess you couldn't have anything that you could set off accidentally; either! I wonder what a good middle ground would be.

I have one of these www.sure24.co.uk/sure-sg390bk-sureguard-elite-cordless-personal-attack-alarm-black.html and the same company have loads of others.

They are good for reassurance when concerned.

My understanding is that although an alarm will not stop an attacker, unless it releases a pocket ninja, the shock of a sudden loud noise will give you time to escape or make an attacker reconsider.

That's interesting what you said about the police, Anchor.

I wonder what they recommend then?

I would guess that the best thing to do would be to scream? I used to have one of those alarm things with the pin and it got caught in my bag a few times and went off. Not many people reacted. However I reckon I would have got a lot more attention if I screamed and shouted HELP as loud as possible.

I had one years ago when walked to work very early in the dark. It was just on a cord that you pulled- try amazon

Same advice was given when I was at uni (way back in the 90s). We were told that shouting “Fire” is more effective as it causes more people to respond.

If you have an iPhone then pressing the lock button 10 times very quickly sets off an alarm and calls the police.

Depending on your phone you can shout ok Google call 999 (Samsung) or What ever you have to say to siri (apple) to wake lt up and say call 999. Not sure if you can set up Google on an iPhone, It should call it for you. Also if you are out somewhere at night maybe share your location with a trusted person. The Google command works really well.

In a threat situation you are more likely to completely freeze than be able to activate an alarm or run or scream.

The freeze response is more common than flight or fight.

We used to take a travel spray of hairspray/deodorant.

By the time an assailant has worked that the stuff burning their eyes is not permanent, you have a chance to get away.

Also, you can’t get into trouble for carrying an offensive weapon.

Thanks everyone. It is difficult isn't it? I agree that you may not have the breath to shout and/or be too frightened.

I know people are used to car alarms etc these days but you would hope that someone would look to where a really loud noise was coming from. And it may frighten the man to run away.