Schoolchildren who attacked a policeman after he asked one of them to pick up some litter behaved worse than animals, a colleague has said.
Two officers were set on by a mob, some wearing school uniform, after they asked a teenage girl to pick up a fast-food wrapper she had dropped.
She picked it up but then pointedly threw it on the ground again as a large crowd gathered around her a
nd the two policemen.
A 15-year-old girl then jumped on a 34-year-old officer and repeatedly bit him on the shoulder and torso.
A colleague who raced to his aid was pulled to the ground and kicked by others as several older men and women joined the fracas in a shopping precinct in Croydon, south London on Wednesday afternoon.
At one point, more than 30 people were involved in the fight.
A police constable, who was one of the first to arrive at the scene, said the incident quickly escalated out of control.
He said: "They swarmed at the start. They feel they can overcome you like a gang. It was a good 30-plus youths.
"It is the behaviour. It is unbelievable. I find it amazing that someone could bite another human being like that.
"They were acting like animals, but I hate using the term 'animals' because they would not do that. Animals have a reason for doing something," he said yesterday.
"This is just nonsense violence. It is difficult to think that they could do something like this – and to a policeman."
Yesterday, detectives were studying CCTV footage to try to identify all those involved
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