A TEENAGER has been left badly injured after being punched by a stranger during a Boxing Day night out.

Blake Allsop, aged 18, was hit in Nelson Square, Bolton, in what his mother believes is another example of the so-called ‘coward punch’ craze, where attackers catch their victim unawares to knock them down with a single blow.

He was left with a suspected dislocated jaw and two damaged teeth and is still recovering at home in Bromley Cross.

The attack follows a warning about the craze by a senior member of the Street Angels volunteers, who patrol the town centre, after three people were assaulted with a single unprovoked punch on the same evening in separate incidents.

Mr Allsop’s mother, Mrs Elizabeth White, said: “My son came out of Level nightclub and walked down the road to get a taxi from Nelson Square and a lad started giving him grief. My son had his hands in his pockets and said: ‘Can you leave me alone and go away?’

“He looked the other way and then another lad ran up to him from nowhere and just punched him on the chin.

“Blake fell into the road. He wasn’t fully unconscious but it took him a while to come round.”

The man who threw the punch ran off across the road with two other man.

Mr Allsop and a friend caught a taxi home and, in a daze, Mr Allsop went straight to bed.

In the morning his parents became concerned when they saw he had bled excessively from his mouth.

Mrs White took her son to the Royal Bolton Hospital before he was transferred to see a specialist at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

The teenager, who studies sports management at Bolton Sixth Form College and has a Saturday job on a Bolton Market stall, has been virtually bed-ridden since being discharged.

Mrs White said: “It’s been very difficult for him to speak because of the pain. He could end up losing his teeth. I’m very upset.

“Whoever did this was a coward. It’s totally wrong and shouldn’t happen to anyone.”

The assault happened at 4.15am on Tuesday and Mr Allsop’s attacker is described as being white, aged about 26, stocky and was wearing a green top.

Anyone with information should call police on 101.