ATTACKS on taxi drivers are falling thanks to a range of police operations to catch those responsible, officers said.

After Nelson Hackney carriage driver Muhammad Nazir, 56, was left with facial injuries and suffering nightmares because of a racist assault on Friday night, police released statistics showing that this had been the first attack on a driver since April.

They said there had been only two incidents in the past year where a taxi driver had been physically assaulted in Colne, and that they were working with the cab companies to try to stamp out lower-level racial abuse and damage to cars.

Since a spate of attacks in Pendle last year which prompted Pendle Taxi Association to raise their plight with Pendle Council, police have been meeting with taxi drivers every week to discuss the difficulties they are facing and how they can be tackled.

Sergeant John Fryer reported at this month's meeting of Pendle Council's Colne and District Committee that officers who had borrowed a taxi to drive round hotspot areas late at night had caught youths throwing eggs and stones at cars.

He said: "It's been an outstanding success. Officers were in a taxi when it got eggs thrown at it and the teenagers who did it were very shocked when police officers got out.

"With this kind of operation, word gets round and the people who are doing this kind of thing get put off and we have seen a big reduction in incidents."

Inspector John Puttock said police were still looking for the man who punched and racially abused Mr Nazir.

He said: "I would like to reassure drivers that attacks of this nature are extremely rare and that this incident is being thoroughly investigated.

"Local taxi operators provide a vital public service to all sectors of the local community and unprovoked assaults on them will simply not be tolerated.

"Working with the Taxi Association we will be doing every thing we can to find the man responsible and to help prevent any future incidents like this one."

Police are looking for a man in his 20s who was with another man and two women when the attack happened outside Yorkshire Bank, Market Street, just before midnight on Friday.

Anyone with information can call police on 01282 425001, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.