THE mother of a teenager assaulted by a gang of thugs while on a shopping trip in Blackburn today blasted police for failing to answer her son's call for help.

Lawrence Willsher, 15, now faces an eight-week wait to see if three teeth will remain in their sockets after they were put back in place by surgeons following the attack last weekend.

Lawrence, whose father is a dentist and who dreams of becoming a dentist himself, was just weeks away from the end of a three-year spell of wearing braces to straighten his teeth.

He was attacked at a bus stop outside Blackburn Ice Arena after spending the day shopping with his friend Bradley Bielby, of Samlesbury.

A gang of 16 and 17-year-olds gathered around the two friends before one of them punched Lawrence in the face, causing three teeth to come out of their sockets along with a piece of bone.

Despite a phone call from Bradley to the police and from Lawrence's mother, Karen Gray, to the police, she claims nobody turned up -- and it was only later on in the day she received a phone call apologising for their non-attendance.

Miss Gray said: "When Bradley rang the police the woman on the end of the phone had no way of working out whether knives were being used or what was going on. They told Bradley they would send someone down and then Bradley rang me. I dashed into Blackburn, ringing the police as I went. They said they were on their way but by the time I got to the hospital to meet Lawrence, no one had turned up at the ice arena to see Bradley, who had decided to wait for the police seeing as he had called them.

"He was there for more than an hour by himself during which time the lads who beat up my son had walked back into town and then back past the ice arena. The police would have caught them if they had bothered to turn up. Lawrence, a Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School pupil said: "We went into the Ice Arena but they refused to help. I couldn't talk and blood was pouring down my arms. No one would help me and Bradley. It was the worst experience of my life.

"I have had a brace for three years and my teeth were just about straight. I don't what they will be like now. They have been wired in to see if they will stay in their sockets."

Miss Gray added: "The best we can hope for is for them to stay in, but they will discolour. It is such a shame because he has been through so much to sort out his teeth then he was assaulted by a group of thugs.

"The police should have been there."

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: "When we receive an official complaint we will investigate thoroughly.

"The Constabulary prides itself on its response to emergency calls and our record for dealing with them is well documented."

Nobody at Blackburn Ice Arena would comment.