Woman who died from taser 'high on bath salts'

A US woman tasered by police has died after she went on a drug-fuelled attack on her three-year-old son early Wednesday morning.

Police believe Pamela McCarthy, 35, was under the influence of the designer drug "bath salts" when she began punching and choking the toddler while making "growling" noises, the Utica Observer-Dispatch reports.

Stark naked, McCarthy then chased after two teenagers who were playing basketball in the upstate New York village of Munnsville, before trying to strangle a dog.

After unsuccessfully trying to handcuff and pepper spray her, a trooper used a taser to shock her.

McCarthy died at a nearby hospital, with an autopsy revealing she had had a heart attack two or three days earlier.

One of the teens she ran towards told 9WSYR-TV that he will remember the attack for a long time.

"You don't always see an old woman running around nude," she said.

"It's just not an everyday thing."

McCarthy's son was taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries.

The drug "bath salts" was recently at the centre of another psychotic incident when a naked man was shot by Miami police while chewing the face of a homeless man.