A MAN who sparked a massive police search in Poole when a balaclava-clad stranger slashed his head with a meat cleaver has spoken out about his terrifying ordeal.

The 21-year-old, who asked not to be named, said he tried to hail down passing drivers as blood poured from his head after the attack on Thursday afternoon.

The assault happened as he was sitting in a caravan with friends outside a house on Surrey Road, in Branksome.

The victim told the Daily Echo: “We were just sitting having a smoke. The next minute the two people I was with got up and left suddenly. The door opened and shut again, and some man came in with a meat cleaver and said: ‘Give me all your money’.

“I said ‘no’ and he smashed me in the head.”

He told how he managed to fight off the attacker, wrestle him out of the caravan and pull off his balaclava. The thug – described as having short hair, a long jaw, brown eyes and a Liverpool accent – then ran off with around £2,000 in cash and the victim’s mobile phone, he said.

Dazed and confused, and with a three inch wound on his crown, the victim also tried to leave the area. Someone spotted him walking wounded along Bourne Valley Road and called police, triggering a major search operation by armed police and sniffer dogs.

“There was blood all over me,” he said. “I was just covered in blood. I asked someone in a car to give me a lift but he said no.”

The weapon was described as a butcher’s meat cleaver with an eight inch by four inch blade.

A victim, who is of no fixed abode, came forward to make an allegation of assault yesterday, a police spokeswoman confirmed.

Enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident, she added.

Detective Sergeant Neil Wright said: “I would like to say thank you to the members of the public for their diligence in calling this incident in.”

Witnesses and anyone with information should contact Dorset Police on 101 or anonymously on Crimestoppers 0800 555 111.