A TEENAGER whose face was slashed in a vicious attack was told by the knifeman's friend: 'Stand back or he'll kill you'.

Zafar Iqbal, aged 18, was one of three victims stabbed in the space of half an hour on Monday by a boy of about the same age.

He was waiting at Preston bus station at 7.30pm when the attacker and a second boy deliberately pushed into him, looking for a fight.

Zafar, of Emerson Road, said: "His hands were in fists like he was going to hit me. I asked him what his problem was and he I thought he punched me in the face.

"I felt a stinging sensation and then saw blood dripping onto my t-shirt and I realised he'd had a knife in his hand."

The victim's two friends leapt to his aid but they backed off when the boy with the attacker warned: "Get away now. He's gone crazy and he's going to kill someone." Doctors have told Zafar his wound, a four-inch slash from ear to chin, will leave a dark, prominent scar across his face. He received 23 stitches.

"I'd rather have taken two stabs in the back. I've been scarred for life."

Police are linking the wounding with two others which took place minutes apart. In each case the knifeman was described as of mixed race, aged about 16, wearing an orange t-shirt and with tramlines shaved in his left eyebrow.

The first attack took place at 7.25pm when a 29 year-old Asian man was stabbed in the back by a youth in Market Street. He needed four stitches.

After Zafar's ordeal, police believe the same attacker went on to stab a third man in the back in Moor Park at about 7.45pm. The 34 year-old victim, also an Asian, was knifed after he refused to hand over his mountain bike.

Det Con Neil Gibson said: "We don't believe this is a racially motivated attack, but it's a dangerous young man who has done this."

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