A PARAMEDIC told last night of the terrifying moment he was showered with glass when a heavy pint tumbler smashed a window of his ambulance as he answered a 999 call.

Bleeding from cuts to his face, father-of-two Paul Scott, from Ingleby Barwick, was forced to make an emergency stop in Stockton at the weekend.

"It was a hell of a bang," said Mr Scott. "At first I thought it was an air rifle pellet or a brick but when we stopped we found a glass tumbler in the cab.

"If this glass had hit me and knocked me out, I would have ploughed into a crowd of 20 or 30 people ahead of me."

Mr Scott said his face was still "quite sore" after casualty staff removed five splinters from his right cheek, one splinter form under his right eyelid and three splinters from his right ear.

"I could have been blinded by those mindless clowns," he said.

The ambulance had picked up an emergency case from Elton village and was heading to North Tees Hospital with the patient and a friend when it was attacked.

Despite their ordeal Mr Scott and colleague Sandra Bethel continued to the hospital where Mr Scott received emergency treatment,

Dave Owen, assistant general manager of the Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said: "The crew and their patient were very lucky indeed.

"This was a totally thoughtless, reckless act. Everyone must have known this was an ambulance. It could have caused a major incident.

"Had our paramedic lost control, the consequences don't bear thinking about."

Unison regional officer Dave Armstrong said: "It really beggars belief.

"Why pick on an ambulance attending a 999 call? What sort of mentality must this person have?"

A spokesman for Cleveland police confirmed that officers were investigating the attack which happened at 11.10pm on Saturday night.