MANCHESTER - A woman walking along Union Street was knocked to the ground and robbed by a man who attacked her from behind.

The 39-year-old woman was headed to her Orange Street home Monday about 12:30 p.m., after first stopping at Cumberland Farms on Hanover Street, when she was assaulted near Bishop Denis Bradley Lane.

She told police a man came up behind her, pulled her hair and threw her to the ground. She fought with him over her purse, but he managed to grab several hundred dollars in cash from it. A witness last saw the man running east on Concord Street.

The woman told police she had seen the man visiting her neighbor on past occasions.

The robber is described as a black man, about 5-foot-9 with an average build and short hair. He was wearing a gray or tan sweatshirt.