Emmerdale aired the start of a horrifying new storyline for Nicola King on Tuesday night, as she was attacked and left bleeding on the ground.
After tormenting her, mugging her and violently assaulting her, the group of thugs ran off without calling for help.
As a tearful and injured Nicola begged them to stop, the girls continued to laugh and egg the main culprit on, as she continued to kick the character as she laid on the floor.
It all kicked off after Nicola accompanied sister Bernice Blackstock and pal Laurel Thomas to a bar for a night out - while Nicola wasn't drinking.
Laurel was soon distracted and headed off with a guy the trio had met in the bar, while Bernice later left too.
As Nicola went to the car park to drive home, she came across two young girls knelt down on the floor and one of them was throwing up.
Clearly both the girls were drunk, and they asked Nicola for some booze to which she told them they'd had enough.
They told her they were celebrating a birthday, and as Nicola continued to make sarcastic comments one of the girls got nasty.
As they both confronted her Nicola became anxious and began walking to her car, not before making one last jibe at them.
It's then that the girls signalled to their other friends, who Nicola hadn't seen, and they all circled around her.
Knocking her to the floor and stealing her bag, they began mocking her appearance and that of her children, as they went through her possessions.
The main girl then threw her phone on the floor and chucked her keys away from them, before telling her to "go fetch".
As Nicola retrieved the items and walked towards her car, said girl had disappeared as the other four girls followed Nicola who was clearly panicked by the encounter.
Suddenly, the main thug returned and threw Nicola to the floor before reaching her arm out as if to help her up.
But Nicola could do nothing as the girl began violently kicking her in the stomach, and began horrifically assaulting her as the other girls laughed and recorded the moment.
As the episode panned back to Nicola later on, she was crying and unable to move on the ground, as the girls laughed before fleeing the scene.
No one called for help as a bloodied and bruised Nicola remained on the floor - and viewers were disgusted by what they had witnessed.
One fan said: "Never thought I’d feel sorry for Nicola but I do now, nasty, vile group of girls…"
Another tweeted: "Horrible girls," as a third fan wrote: "These girls are horrible."
A fourth viewer commented: "Poor Nicola, that was hard to watch."
Got any theories or thoughts on the storyline? Let us know in the comments section below
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.
