I was under the impression dragons couldn't attack within the walls of the cities, but maybe wrong?

Cos a dragon attacked Riften yesterday on my game, was good fight though.

Any reason as to why that happened though?

This can happen in any city, though it's kind of rare.

I've never seen a dragon attack in major cities. Only in towns like Riverwood.

I've killed a couple in the courtyard of the College at Winterhaven.

That's not technically a walled off section though.

One attacked me in Riften once if I understand correctly its a very rare occurrence.

Yup, must be very rare, ive played for over 400+ hours or so and never had it happen... Also found a Pearl ingrediant today o_O

Still so many things to see and find~

I was attacked just outside riften
Had gone out with just a hunting bow and clothes. Nothing else. So I legged it back into riften to get my armour and proper bow. The beast followed me in.
So I've not had one spawn there, but can follow you in.

I've had two spawn outside of Riften, but never follow me into a town.

Yep, in 200 hours or so, I've had that happen twice. Seems like they can follow you in.

Technically the College doesn't count since it is not a separate cell. I've seen them in Whiterun, Markarth and Riften, and I've heard of them in Solitude etc. on the forums. They have a sequence of buildings to perch on and one designated landing zone. Killed the one in Whiterun with a 1-H finishing animation, it is lots of fun.

If you Fast Travel into a city, you can trigger a Dragon Attack in the city. I have not seen it in the larger towns, but Riverwood, Morkarth, Riften and Dawnstar have all had attacks in my game.

It can happen more often if you use fast travel to cities a lot. I've had it happen at nearly every city. One landed on the steps of Jorrvaskr in Whiterun (which was a mistake for it -- the Companions were not amused). It's fun when everyone comes running up to see the skeleton and looks at you in awe afterwords.

I've had it happen a couple of times in Solitude. It triggered a funny dialogue bug with one of the children where he commented on the dragon and my only available response was that tag sounded fun.

I had it happen several times. If I recall correctly, at least twice in Solitude (once, in front of General's quarters and once in the residential area), once inside Riften (in the market area) and once inside Whiterun (right in front of my house!). The one in Whiterun was funny because it was before the patch that made bodies disappear. The dragon's skeleton lasted for weeks and changed position every time I came home. Sometimes, it was at the gates, sometimes in front of the smithy, often it was right on my front stoop!

It wasn't until I read forum posts that I learned that dragons inside walled cities was a rare occurrence. I figured it happened to everyone.

And these were all with the same character. I guess she's just a dragon magnet.

Please excuse the picture quality this is an iPhone capture of my tv screen. I play ps3

http://img191.imageshack.us/i/imagexap.jpg/

That's a dragon outside Mistveil Keep

Edit: well it was a dragon untill i Krii Lun Aus-ed his ass and pumped him full of arrows

I got attacked in Whiterun on my first playthrough.

Really? Here I had though that, given the nature of Markarth's construction, it wouldn't be attacked.

Yup, had a dragon attack when I fast traveled to Riften once.

I've been attacked inside Windhelm and Riften before. The ancient dragon killed off most the market in Riften, which failed a ton of my quests.

I can wonder and hardly see dragons, but seems about 60% of the time I fast travel one spawns.

Saw a video of 12 spawned dragons in makarth. Was epic to watch

Off topic maybe...but cool

One time I had an ancient dragon whip out most of the population of Riften. I don't fast travel straight to cities anymore, just pick a landmark nearby.

It DOES happen. A bit rare, but it does. I've had several in Solitude now.

I've seen a dragon attack inside the walls of Windhelm, by that time I'd got the shout it was great to see two dragons battle it out within the city walls.

I had a dragon-attack when I left the halls of the College of Winterhold, and came to the circular area outside with the big statue in the centre...so far, this was the easiest dragon-kill I had, because I could use all those pillars to shield me from his attacks.