A PAPER boy was punched and a shopkeeper threatened with a Stanley knife by three teenagers who were refused cigarettes on a Blackpool street.

A Blackpool Police spokesman said three teenagers approached the 15-year-old paper boy at around 8.20pm on February 2 at the junction of Hemingway and St Annes Road, Blackpool.

They asked him first for a paper, and then for cigarettes, but when he told them he did not have any one of the youths punched him and they all ran off.

A local shopkeeper gave chase but was forced to stop near the junction of Vicarage Lane and Daggers Hall Lane after one of the teenagers threatened him with a Stanley knife.

The police spokesman described all three offenders as white, aged 15-18 and around 5ft 10in tall. One teenager had brown hair, and was wearing a blue tracksuit with a hood and a grey woolly hat.

The second teenager was wearing a grey, white and black striped fleece and a cream baseball cap. The third was wearing a cream jacket.

"This was an unprovoked attack on a teenager as he was minding his own business doing his paper round," said the spokesman, adding that the boy had been left shaken by the attack.

He appealed for anyone with information about the attack to contact Blackpool Police on (01253) 293933.