ROME-Lady Carla Powell was forced to hand over one million pounds worth of jewellery after being held at gunpoint during a robbery attack at her villa in Italy, police said.

 Lady Powell, wife of British diplomat Charles Powell-former foreign policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher-was hit over the head with a gun during a robbery attack at her Italian villa outside the village of Palombara Sabina, 25 miles from Rome. 

 The gang of robbers, who are believed to be Romanian, were armed with pistols and knives and stole cash and jewellery worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Lady Powell was even forced to remove the Cartier watch and rings she was wearing at the time of the attack. The only item of jewellery that remains is a ring given to her as present by Lady Thatcher from when she was prime minister. In order to access the villa the robbers also attacked Lady Powell's estate manager by dislocating his knee. 

 Lady Powell, still bruised and shaken up from the attack that took place on Monday at 1pm, recounted the story to the police; “They pushed open the door and came in. I screamed and one of them pushed me to the floor and hit me on the head with a pistol to shut me up. They said that if I didn’t stop yelling they would kill me. They shot two bullets into the wall-they wanted to silence me.”

 Lady Powell added; “I’ve never been afraid of anything in my life, not even when our lives were threated by the IRA in England. I’m a strong woman but the level of aggression they used was really nasty.”