A SIXTH form student was kicked several times in the head as he lay prone on the floor during a vicious attack on a Bradford estate.

The 16-year-old spent a night in hospital after a one-on-one scrap allegedly descended into a "five or six on one" assault.

The brawl happened in Parkside Road, near Summerlands Grove, West Bowling. Residents said up to 30 youths were circling around it.

The teenager, a pupil at nearby Bradford Academy, suffered bruising to his face, a cut to the head, and was left almost unconscious, according to one resident.

He was kept at Bradford Royal Infirmary overnight so his condition could be monitored following the incident at 3.30pm yesterday.

One woman, who did not want to be named, said she did not get involved at first but felt she had to intervene in the brawl when she saw the boy being kicked in the head.

She added: "There were punches and kicks. They were kicking his head while he was on the floor. It was scary.

"Some people shouted at them to stop but they didn't until they were told that the police had been called. They ran off then.

"The boy tried to walk away but you could see his legs were buckling."

Residents stayed with the boy until an ambulance arrived. One said: "He was shaken up, very nearly unconscious and breathing erratically. We put a compress on his head where it was bleeding.

The executive principal of Bradford Academy in Teasdale Street, Gareth Dawkins, confirmed the victim was a sixth-form student at the school, but the attackers were not and he did not want to speculate where they were from.

“We have a really good police liaison team and they’re dealing with it as a criminal matter. We’re strong on supervising youngsters to and from school, but unfortunately this happened about ten minutes before the day ended,” he said, adding that post-16 students had more freedom about when they left.

Residents said elderly neighbours were particularly unnerved by the fight. One woman said: "We've been having trouble quite a lot lately. We've been a hot spot and we're just fed up with all the anti-social behaviour that's happening on Parkside Road and around the park."

Bradford East MP David Ward (Lib Dem) said: “It’s shocking and this poor lad, goodness know what could have happened to him and I think it’s symptomatic of some of the problems that we’re seeing in terms of quite violent anti-social behaviour.”

He said problems in the area were something his office had been working on with police.

Councillor Alyas Karmani (Bradford Independent Group, Little Horton) said: "We have had this discussion and with the police at various residents' association meetings. Police are always at the meeting and they have got a direct line to the neighbourhood policing team, who respond very quickly.

"What we don't want to do is start a precedent where in every area there's CCTV. What has happened is there was an increase in teams out patrolling and police visibility."

A police spokesman said inquiries were ongoing and asked witnesses to contact police on 101.