This might sound amusing but there was a serious incident at the weekend that got me thinking about it. We're now so used to hearing screaming foxes that it's possible to mis-identify a person screaming in distress as being a fox. So if you ever find yourself being mugged or attacked, my advice is to try to include a few words (eg Help! Help!) in with the blood-curdling screams, so that people can tell it's a human needing help. And that applies to both men and women.

[end of public safety announcement]

Apparently the best thing to shout is "Fire!". Some will not answer calls for generic help because they're afraid to get involved, or think it's people messing about - but "Fire!" draws more active attention in case it will directly affect the audience.

I don't know if this is true, or even if I want it to be true (it's a bit cynical about human nature, isn't it?), and I certainly doubt my own presence of mind to remember such advice were I ever to find myself in trouble, but I thought I'd share.