Two pensioners have been beaten and robbed in two attacks in Limerick.

The latest victim, aged in her 80s, was returning home from bingo on Sunday evening when she was set upon by a man at her front door.

It follows another attack on a man (80) in the same part of the city last week.

The attacker grabbed the elderly lady, dragged her to the rear of her house and assaulted her on Sunday evening.

The man had lay in wait as the pensioner was dropped off by a taxi at her home in Rosbrien.

The lady was turned upside down and assaulted, and the man fled with €20 in cash.

The woman is being treated in hospital for serious but non-life threatening injuries.

It is the second similar attack on the south side of the city in a week - after an elderly man was also beaten and robbed in the toilets of the Roxboro Shopping Centre last Thursday.

Gardaí are questioning a man aged in his 20s in relation to both attacks.