A MAN was set upon by a dozen-strong gang last night.
The victim was beaten and kicked unconscious opposite the Swan pub on Swan Lane in Lockwood.
Shopkeeper Dinesh Joshi witnessed the attack from his newsagents just 15 yards away.
He said: “I thought they were just playing with something but then I saw the guy curled up on the ground. They were punching him and kicking him like a football.
“It all happened so quickly, they beat him until he couldn’t move. He must have been very badly hurt.”
Mr Joshi, 52, believes the victim was ambushed. He said: “I think it was a set-up, they must have been waiting somewhere for him.”
After the attack, the gang fled towards North Street. Mr Joshi said: “They were wearing dark clothes so I couldn’t describe what they looked like.”
Mr Joshi, who owns Joshi’s Newsagents, is no stranger to violence, having been robbed 10 times in the last nine years. Just two weeks ago he scared off a gunman by waving his mother’s walking stick at him.
He said: “That day it was one-on-one. There was no point going out tonight to confront so many people.
“I think we’re living in a lawless society where people don’t care about each other.”
Paramedics arrived within minutes of the attack and rushed the man to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
The victim is 29 and has the surname Shaw. He was treated for cuts to the head but his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
Last night a West Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said: “Police were called at 6.55pm to reports of an assault outside a premises on Swan Lane in Lockwood.
“A man in his late twenties is believed to have been attacked by a group of men, who made of in a silver car.”
