YOUNG TOURIST Emelia Andersson was full of praise today for the people who helped after she was slashed with a knife by an attacker on the first day of her Phuket holiday.

Miss Andersson, 22, and her friend Kerstin Stromberg were walking on the beach road in Karon, opposite the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort and Spa, when the assailant struck.

''It happened so fast,'' Miss Andersson told Phuketwan today in her room at Patong Hospital. ''I didn't really know I had been hurt. It was only a bit later, after we gave chase, that I suddenly realised I was bleeding.

''Perhaps it was the adrenaline.'' Miss Andersson's loud screams about 7.30pm on Thursday alerted others to the attack. The beach road was busy and there were people all around them.

The attacker slashed the strap of her hold-all bag and took off with it, running. Perhaps, Miss Andersson said, he may not even have intended to hurt her.

But the robber's blow brought a cruel end to the friends' holiday, which had begun only that morning with their arrival on a flight from Sweden.

They'd barely had time to say ''wow'' over their private pool at the Access Resort and Villas before their break from work together at a pharmacy service in Kalmar, southern Sweden, was brought to an untimely end.

Miss Andersson said that she could only wait anxiously now for Phuket doctors to give her permission to fly, which she hopes will come within days. On Monday the two friends will report to the Swedish consulate in Phuket City and request a replacement passport, then provide the first detailed, direct account to Phuket police.

The knife-wielding robber made off with about 4000 baht in cash, credit cards, Miss Andersson's passport and an inexpensive camera.

She was full of praise today for staff from the Hilton, who helped immediately, went with her to hospital in a taxi then returned the following day to check on her welfare.

Director of Operations Richard Margo even wrapped the wound in his shirt to stem the flow of blood. Flesh and muscle were cut and about two dozen stitches were required, but fortunately no nerves were severed.

''The people here couldn't have been kinder and more helpful,'' she said. ''The staff at Access have also been very concerned for our welfare. We are amazed at the hospitality of all the people on Phuket - with the exception of one.''

The friends had been planning their escape to Phuket, a popular destination for Swedes, since January and were looking forward to their stay. Now they just want to get back to Sweden as soon as they possibly can.

''We realise that I was just unlucky, that it is the kind of thing that could happen anywhere,'' she said. ''But my boyfriend and my parents are very upset, so we just need to go.''

The pair were so intent on what had happened that they did not see the man's accomplice, waiting nearby on a motorcycle. Witnesses told police volunteers that he sped off with the knifeman riding pillion.

Senior Phuket police have warned Phuketwan that assaults by bag-snatchers wielding knives or guns are on the rise, but attacks on tourists have so far been rare.