Eight arrested after horror hammer attack on pupil, 15

EIGHT men have been arrested after a boy was left with head injuries in a hammer attack at his school.

The headmaster said he could not understand why anyone would use such "extreme violence" against one of his pupils.

Steve Colledge told how a gang of at least four men came across the tennis courts at the Ridgeway School in Wroughton, near Swindon, and attacked the boy.

The attack, which happened just before 4pm yesterday, left pupils and parents "stunned and shocked", he added.

The 15-year-old has been described as "comfortable" after receiving treatment in hospital.

Eight men were arrested yesterday. The boy was set upon at the end of the school day by a gang of Asian men who according to local sources were the family of another pupil at the comprehensive school. He was said to have been held down and hit with a hammer.

Mr Colledge said he was on patrol in the school grounds when the boy, who is white and in year 11, was attacked.

The headmaster said he understood that the boy had been hit more than once and was "bleeding profusely but conscious at all times and able to help get himself on to the paramedic's stretcher".