An off-duty police officer has been attacked by a group of youths after he intervened when a bus driver was being verbally abused.

Dave Thorne told Neil Mitchell a group of ten youths were giving a bus driver a hard time last Thursday at Waverley Gardens in Mulgrave at 1.30pm.

But when he spoke up, the youths became violent.

“As I got off I said something along the lines of “ease up guys, he’s just doing his job,” Dave said.

“The male pulled out a box cutter, like a stanley knife, a female pulled out some kind of pointy weapon.

“I got king hit from behind with something, I don’t know what.”

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Dave spent several hours in hospital and received stitches to the cut on his head.

He says he cannot recall what the offenders looked like, other than to say they were of African appearance.