Hunt on for thugs who attacked family

Detective Vanessa Jones says police urge anyone with information to come forward. Photo / APN

Police are hunting a group of offenders who attacked a family of three like "a pack of dogs".

The Hastings victims are still reeling from Saturday night's assault, which detectives have described as "vicious and unprovoked".

The father, 51, was beaten almost beyond recognition and his wife and daughter suffered cuts, bruises and fractures after the attack by a group of up to six.

The family, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, had left their Nelson St home for the supermarket when two men darted in front of their car.

"My daughter was driving and a couple of men jumped out," the 48-year-old mother said. "She tooted the horn at them, then something hit the back of the car."

The family pulled over on to the side of the road and the father got out to take a look.

"They just ran at him; he didn't have a chance," the mother said.

"All I heard was him saying, 'Call the police'. I was fumbling in my bag and dropped my phone in the car. I screamed for someone to call the police."

Meanwhile, the man's 26-year-old daughter had run to his rescue as he lay on the ground being kicked and punched.

"I basically yelled out for them to stop, and went to help him. That's when I got cracked in the side of the head," she said.

"I huddled over my father's head and they laid into me. Initially I thought if I went over there to protect him they wouldn't hit me because I'm a girl, but they had no reservations about that."

The mother saw five or six people surrounding her husband and daughter and went to their aid, but she too was viciously attacked.

"Before I go to sleep at night, I close my eyes and all I can see is that image," she said. "They were like a pack of dogs."

The beating lasted for two or three minutes, before the offenders caught sight of a neighbour calling the police.

"They took off and gave him a passing punch, then went across the road where a Somali man was standing and punched him."

The father has a broken nose, fractured cheek bones and swelling, his daughter has stitches to a cut near her eye, a fractured cheek bone and bruising and his wife has lumps, scratches and bruising.

The offenders are described as a mixed group of Maori males and females in their late teens and early 20s.

"It's a serious assault, especially because of the wounds that the father received," Detective Vanessa Jones said. "This is up there considering [the victims] were kicked and punched around the head.

"People talk. There is bound to be someone who knows something - we ask that they give us a call."