A MAN was beaten with a home-made mace as he waited to pick up his five-year-old son from a primary school.

Parents and children watched in horror as the 30-year-old was battered about the head and body as he sat in his car.

The man suffered a broken left arm and a fractured skull in the attack, and is being treated in hospital.

Police said the victim also sustained deep cuts to his head and face during the assault, which happened outside Throston Primary School, in Hartlepool, at about 3.30pm on Wednesday.

The man was sitting in his blue Ford Escort when he was attacked by another man with what appeared to be a piece of wood with a chain and a ball of lead fixed on the end.

The victim was taken to the University Hospital of Hartlepool, but was later released.

At home last night, the unemployed father-of-three who did not want to be named, said: "I'm very lucky to be here. I was shocked and scared.

"You don't expect anything like that to happen, especially when you're picking your bairn up from school.

"My son saw me covered in blood and passing out, and he's really shook up."

One mother, who was picking up her child, said: "The man's face was a right mess. It was dripping with blood."

Another woman said: "I heard all the commotion. A man who must have been the attacker was effing and blinding. All of the parents were looking around and he just gave him it."

Councillor Harry Clouth, chairman of governors at the school, said: "My first thought when I heard this was for the safety of the children.

"It concerns me when we get people like this coming up here and doing this sort of thing. It's sheer lunacy."

Detective Constable Robin Jacobs, of Cleveland Police, said: "We don't think the child saw the assault, but there were other people picking kids up and leaving the school at the time and we would appeal for them to come forward to help us."

Anyone with information is asked to call police on (01642) 302126.

A 39-year-old local man was arrested shortly after the attack, and was being questioned last night.