A FRAIL pensioner today spoke of her terror after thieves tricked their way into her home and turned off a machine that helps keep her alive.

The 91-year-old great-grandmother believes she could have been killed by burglars who stole £160 after switching off the oxygen machine on which she depends to breathe 24 hours a day.

Recovering at her Southampton home, she has been left so traumatised that the Daily Echo has agreed not to reveal her surname - simply calling her Daisy.

She said: "I am still very shocked, but angry as well. Why did they have to do that? There was no need. I can't understand any of it.

"I just think about what could have happened to me."

The former school cleaner was targeted by the con men when she was disturbed from an afternoon nap by the sound of knocking at the door of her one-bedroom flat in Sholing.

She answered it to find two men who told her they needed to check for a gas leak after a pipe had been cracked following an accident nearby.

The pair told her to go into the kitchen and clear out under the sink for them despite her being obviously attached to an oxygen machine by breathing tubes.

After carrying out their demands she opened a door to her living room to get more air and saw one of the men rifling through her handbag. When she challenged him both men ran out of the house.

It was only as Daisy, who has suffered a heart attack and has long-term respiratory problems, struggled for breath in shock that she realised her oxygen machine had been turned off.

Her daughter Eileen Newton said: "It is appalling that these people could see what health my mother was in and not only stole from her but then turned off her machine that she needs to breathe. I cannot understand it. They could have killed her."

Daisy, who served as an Army cook during the war, added: "I have struggled to sleep ever since it happened. If they needed the money that badly I would have even given it to them. There was no need to do this to me."

Police have also condemned the attack that they believe may be linked to several others committed in the Eastleigh area including one at a home of another 91-year-old who was conned into letting in a man posing as a water engineer on the same day.

Det Con Brett Saunders said: "It's hard to believe anyone could stoop so low as to con a vulnerable elderly woman out of her money and turn off her oxygen machine without giving a thought to the effect it might have had on her had she not been able to turn it on again."

Both suspects were described as white and in their late 30s. One was 5ft 9in with dark bushy hair and wearing dark trousers, a blue shirt and tie and a black waistcoat with an ID badge on it. The other man was about 6ft with fair hair and a round face and was wearing a white shirt with dark trousers and a fawn coloured top.

Anyone with information can contact detectives at Southamp-ton police's burglary investigation unit on 0845 045 4545.