A 20-YEAR-OLD man sustained broken bones in his face and lacerations after being struck in the face with a bar and knocked unconscious by one of a gang of five youths as he left an off-licence in Ayresome Street, Middlesbrough, late on Wednesday night.

A man who was with him was also attacked. The man with the bar fled towards the old Ayresome ground area. He is white, about 5ft 10ins with very short hair and dark eyebrows.

CONMAN STRIKES: A trickster masquerading as a door-to-door salesman in household goods stole an 85-year-old's purse containing hundreds of pounds in life savings. The thief, who is aged about 35 and spoke with a local accent, struck at the house in Ayton Drive, Redcar. He wore a T-shirt and red trousers.

RIVER RESCUE: A 21-year-old woman is being detained under the Mental Health Act for her own safety after threatening to throw herself off the Princess Diana Bridge at Stockton into the River Tees. All three emergency services were called to the scene. The woman was taken into police custody overnight before being handed over to hospital care.

BATHS RE-OPENING: Eston Swimming Pool in east Cleveland is to reopen on Tuesday after flood waters forced closure of the complex for the second time in 18 months. The boilers had been submerged as rainwater flooded the plant room. Relocation of electrical panels after the earlier floods meant down time was kept to a minimum.

GARDENS FIRE: A midnight blaze wrecked sheds and allotments off Brierton Lane, Hartlepool. Cleveland Fire Brigade said the blaze destroyed four sheds.

BANK FALL: Firefighters were called in to help an ambulance crew haul a woman to safety after she fell 20ft down an embankment into Billingham Beck behind Warkworth Road, Billingham, in the early hours of yesterday.