POLICE are appealing for witnesses to a knife attack outside Greyhound pub in Bridport in the early hours of Saturday morning.

A 19-year-old man received a deep stab wound to the back and a cut on the hand in the incident.

He had to have two operations and a skin graft on his hand at Salisbury Hospital.

The victim told the News he saw his assailant come towards him with a four inch knife. He instinctively made a grab for it, cutting his hand so badly it he has had to have plastic surgery to repair the damage.

The assault happened just after midnight on Saturday morning.

Dorset Police were called to reports of the attack outside the Greyhound public house on East Street.

Acting Police Inspector Jamie Clark said the police want to speak to anyone who might have witnessed the incident or the events leading up to it.

He said: “Two local men, the victim being 19 years of age and the alleged offender being 28 years of age, were involved in a verbal altercation outside of the They Greyhound public house in East Street in the early hours of Saturday morning.

“A fight ensued and the 19 year old victim received a cut to his hand and a small puncture wound to his back. Nobody can tell us what implement was used it might be alike a knife or it might be a sharply pointed article.

“The alleged offender was arrested at a nearby address. He has been interviewed and released on police bail pending further enquiries.

“There are medical reports required and we need to review the CCTV and we are appealing for witnesses to make contact with DC Gerald Marchant at Weymouth CID on the 101 number.”

Acting Insp Clark said the matter had been referred to Pubwatch.

He added: “This is an isolated matter and these sort of incidents are quite unusual now thanks to the way Pubwatch works with early intervention on people misbehaving and of course we try and patrol the town as much as possible during drinking hours at the weekend.

“Any kind of disruptive behaviour can lead to people being banned from pubs which have signed up to Pubwatch for three months to six months.

“Thankfully because of the success of Pubwatch these kind of incidents are rarer than they were.”

He said the alleged offender did appear to be under the influence of alcohol.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said: “We got the call at 12.03am on Saturday morning reporting a male had been assaulted and suffered a back and hand injury. It is reported that It’s thought the patient may have been stabbed. We sent one ambulance and he was taken to DCH. It’s reported that the wound was quite deep.”

The alleged offender has been released on police bail until June.