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9th December 2011

Spate of violent attacks on Leeds students

A series of violent attacks by masked men in Leeds have left ten hospitalized.
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TLDR

Ten people were beaten up and two students were left hospitalised after a group of masked men embarked on a series of brutal attacks in Leeds last week.

The news comes after 16 more young people were attacked by a similar gang in the Woodhouse area of the city.

One Leeds student who had been attacked described how he was punched in the back of the head until he fell to the floor and then had his jaw stamped on; after the muggers told him that “he hadn’t run away quickly enough.”

“They took my University keys and my University fob but the only reason they stopped was because a car drove past and spooked them,” he said.

A student who managed to run away from the attackers said that the attackers seemed to show no fear.

“It’s madness, I was with eight other decent-sized lads, and it was early in the evening when people were still walking round and it was still light, they didn’t care though,” he said.

A father of one of the victims of the attacks even went as far to say that he didn’t want his son to return university once he had recovered.

Leeds student, Jamie Fallows, said that he was “really concerned” by the recent violence.

“The University of Leeds has now put on a special student’s only bus going from their campus to halls of residence and I think that Leeds Met should be doing the same,” he said when commenting ion the university’s response to the attacks.

Local MP Greg Mulholland has demanded that talks take place between the university, the police and local councilors in order to stop the attacks.

Police have made six arrests in connection with the attacks; including two men, aged 14 and 16.

 

 

 

Joe Sandler Clarke

Joe Sandler Clarke

Joe Sandler Clarke is the head of student media at the University of Manchester. He was longlisted for Amnesty International’s Student Human Rights Reporter of the Year in 2012. He was a News Editor at The Mancunion in the year 2011-12

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