She heard the cry of a calf being attacked by the wolf.
Mrs Maksudova managed to save the calf but the wolf then turned its attention to her, clamping its jaws on to her hand.
The 56 - year-old needed hospital treatment after being bitten. In a reversal of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale where a granddaughter saves her grandmother from being eaten by a wolf, this Russian grandmother took fate in her own hands. Speaking from hospital with her hand bandaged, Mrs Maksudova said that she was 'not even frightened' during the wolf attack.
'With an open mouth, the wolf suddenly jumped on me,' she said. ‘I wanted to open his mouth and put my fist all the way to his throat, but I couldn’t. And then I took the axe and hit him on his head,’ Mrs Maksudova said.
Her fellow villagers have vowed to hunt down other wolves in the area.
