AN APPRENTICE engineer was head butted on a bus on Portland.

Ben Richardson, 19, from Portland and girlfriend Trina Smith were on their way to the Portland Fair when a group of men on the bus started shouting at them.

Miss Smith, 19, said: "Some boys started saying that Ben was going to get beaten up. They made it clear how much they hated him but we had never seen them before."

She said that they were about to get off the bus at Tophill near Pound Piece when one of the boys shoved Mr Richardson forward. When he turned around they punched him in the face a couple of times.

Then one of them head butted him.

Miss Smith, who is a care assistant, said: "There were four of them and two were assaulting him and the other two were shouting. Ben did not retaliate at all.

"When the bus driver started talking about the police the boys ran off."

She said that the boys were wearing tracksuits and baseball caps.

The emergency services were called and Mr Richardson was treated in an ambulance. The police searched that area but did not find the offenders.

A police spokesman said: "We are appealing for witnesses to this crime, which we believe to be attempted actual bodily harm. There could be people either on the bus or at the bus stop who saw the incident."

Police think that the offenders might have run off into Courtlands Estate in Weston.