'I recognised my son in horrific video being shared around his school'

A mum who spotted her 11-year-old son being attacked in a video while walking home from school has spoken of her horror.

Kirsty, who asked not to give her full name, said the incident happened on Tuesday, January 16 as her son walked along Highfield Road in Blackpool.

The boy had just not long left Highfield Leadership Academy after being given a detention when he was set upon at around 4pm.

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The video, which has been circulating among other schoolchildren, appears to show the boy being approached by a pupil from another school. He is then verbally abused by a group of children while being pushed, shoved and hit.

"In those circumstances, when your friends have just left you and you're kind of stood there on your own, you've got him attacking you and an older boy telling him to hit you," Kirsty told LancsLive .

"Then you've obviously got whoever's behind the camera with their friends, laughing and joking, it's an intimidating situation. It's obviously fight or flight, but obviously my son chose to get away."

The mum said the schoolboys have had a "couple of run ins" but nothing to this extent before. She added her son and the perpetrator had a discussion over the phone prior to the incident, with "banter" that escalated into the situation filmed on camera.

"In the video, you can hear them saying my son's called some girls some names," Kirsty explained. "I've said from the beginning to whoever has asked, my son is no angel saint, he's got a mouth on him and he can use it when he needs to. But even calling someone names doesn't justify what happened to him."

Having obtained the footage from a friend of a friend, Kirsty says she hopes this doesn't happen