Gardaí in Cork city are investigating an attack in which a woman aged in her 20s had her face slashed.

A man approached the woman on Friar Street yesterday afternoon, and slashed her face a number of times with what is thought to have been a Stanley knife.

The woman underwent emergency surgery at Cork University Hospital for what are being described as "horrific injuries".

Detectives have begun scanning CCTV footage to try and identify the attacker.

Gardaí believe that the woman was deliberately targeted.