SIX children a week go to casualty at East Lancashire hospitals after being attacked by bullies, it has been revealed.

They are taken to hospital with injuries including broken noses and black eyes, a leading A&E nurse said.

As anti-bullying week drew to a close, hospital bosses said the assaults had to stop as they left psychological scars long after physical wounds had healed.

A spokeswoman for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said that the emergency departments at the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General Hospitals each saw about three children a week who had sustained injuries as a result of alleged bullying.

She said: "Injuries may include black eyes, broken noses and a range of other minor injuries."

Mark Hulme, a consultant nurse in A&E said: "Most injuries are not life-threatening, however children suffer greatly from the emotional effects of bullying."

Teachers said they were taken aback by the number of children who need to go to hospital because of physical attacks.

And council chiefs said schools were determined to deal with all incidents to stop bullies in their tracks.

Coun Maureen Bateson, who is responsible for education at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "This is distressing and a cause for concern. Violence is a zero tolerance for me in whatever form it comes. It is not a way we should be going and it is our job, with other partners, to address that."

She said: "If an incident has happened at school it will be reported and I am sure the school will deal with it. But if it is outside of school we would like to hear about it."

Emma-Jane Cross, chief executive of the Beatbullying charity, said: "At last A&E departments are prepared to speak honestly about the thousands of young people who are so badly bullied they have to seek emergency medical attention.

"Beatbullying have worked with literally thousands of young people over the last seven years, who have been so badly physically assaulted by their bully they found themselves waiting in A&E departments for medical attention or visiting their GP."

Phil Deakin, school business manager at Blakewater College, Shadsworth Road, Blackburn said: "I am quite surprised at that level. Certainly at Blakewater we have nowhere near those problems around bullying.

"We don't get to that situation. We try and pick it out as soon as possible and children feel safe enough to talk to use before it gets to that level."

Elaine Barnes, a deputy head at Witton Park Business and Enterprise College, Buncer Lane, Blackburn said incidents where pupils had to go to hospital were "few and far between".

But she said: "No school would say there is no bullying in their school but that is the way it is.

"We have very stringent procedures to deal with that. The whole idea is to relay through all the work we do that people need to know what to do if they feel they are being bullied and get support for that."

Anti-bullying week, which began in 2004, ended yesterday. This saw schools hold assemblies dedicated to combating bullies and a theatre group perform a play on how pupils can help themselves and others.

Bill Lovat, assistant director of children's services at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "Our anti bullying message during anti bullying week has been very clear and is a priority for us all year round."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "The county council works very closely with school across the county on anti-bullying and schools have their own anti-bullying policies."

But its cabinet member for schools, Coun Alan Whittaker, said: "You must not make the assumption that these are as a result of bullying in schools. I don't think that is the case. We would know about it if people were having hospital treatment."

When a child is taken to hospital after an alleged attack by a bully letters are sent, with their parent or carer's consent, to their school nurse, headteacher, GP and police community liaison officers, the hospital spokesman said.