A security guard was subjected to a "ferocious" attack on the night he died, a Home Office pathologist told Leeds Crown Court.

Seven men stand accused of conspiring to murder Qadir Ahmed, 24, of Gordon Street, after his battered body was found on the Victoria Park roundabout, Keighley, on February 13, last year.

Professor Christopher Milroy, who examined Mr Ahmed's body after the assault, catalogued 28 sites of injury.

He said that an axe or hatchet had been used, at least one knife and at least one cylindrical object of some sort.

"There are four mechanisms of injury and at least three weapons," he said.

"There is evidence that this was a rapid and ferocious attack which led quickly to this person's death," he added.

Professor Milroy listed each of the injuries in detail concluding that in his opinion the fatal wound was a blow to the back of the head with an axe.

He described the horizontal wound to the back of Mr Ahmed's head -- 8cm long and 1cm wide -- which exposed and fractured the skull.

"This was done with a relatively bluntish implement such as an axe or hatchet," he said.

Professor Milroy said there were abrasions on Mr Ahmed's body consistent with him having been knocked down from behind by a car.

Although he said it was possible that Mr Ahmed's body could have been dragged.

He described "tramline" bruises on Mr Ahmed's body which had been done by at least one cylindrical weapon and a series of knife wounds.

He said that one of the stab wounds punctured the bottom half of one of Mr Ahmed's lungs and was itself potentially fatal. One knife wound to Mr Ahmed's thigh had travelled through the bone.

Professor Milroy told the court: "A considerable degree of force had been used to cut into the bone. If you have ever hacked into a joint of meat you will know it is difficult to cut through bone. Human bone is just the same."

He said there were injuries on the backs of Mr Ahmed's hands and arms characteristic of wounds sustained by someone trying to defend themselves.

The court also heard evidence from Wajid Rashid, who said he had been playing football at Keighley Leisure Centre with Mr Ahmed on the night of the attack.

He said as the car he was travelling in left Victoria Park and turned left on to Bradford Road, he spotted Mr Ahmed's car which he said had been pranged.

"There were some people chasing Qadir and I saw him jump over the railings. There were eight or ten chasing him. They had balaclavas on," he said.

He added: "By the time we got closer they were just approaching the roundabout. Somebody had a baseball bat or a bat of some kind in their hands."

Asked by prosecution counsel Jennifer Kershaw QC what happened next, Mr Rashid recalled Mr Ahmed running towards the car he was travelling in.

"Qadir ran towards us but he noticed it was a two door car and ran away. I think he might have jumped in if it had been a four door car," he said. Mr Rashid said there were just two or three people chasing Mr Ahmed at that time.

The jury heard that there were some discrepancies in the evidence given by Mr Rashid in court and the statement he gave to police following the incident.

A friend of Mr Ahmed's, Intakab Din, also told the court he had seen Mr Ahmed being chased across the roundabout on the night of his death.

He said he recalled seeing a Rover driving around the roundabout but admitted that this recollection could have been influenced by discussions about the incident he had since had with friends.

Mr Din said that the car he was travelling in, with three others, drove away from the incident down Hard Ings Road.

He said they turned around at the Fina garage and went back to the roundabout.

"I saw Qadir's body on the roundabout. As the car was still moving, I jumped out. I ran over to Qadir but there was no sign of life," he said.

The court heard how Mr Ahmed had previously been prosecuted for drug offences. When asked by the judge if Mr Ahmed had continued to deal drugs after his arrest on a previous occasion Mr Din did not reply.

Judge Justice Henriques said: "You gave a knowing smirk but that won't transcribe on to paper. But you did give a knowing smirk." Mr Din replied: "Yes."

On Wednesday the court was told how one of the defendants -- Mohammed Rafiq -- had sought hospital treatment for facial burns hours after Mr Ahmed was killed.

The prosecution highlighted how a Rover 820 car, allegedly used during the attack, was discovered burned out the following day.

Richard Mansell, prosecuting, said Rafiq had turned up at a hospital in Burnley in the early hours of the next day.

John Pilkington, a security guard on duty in the accident and emergency department, said he recalled Rafiq walking in with a friend.

He said: "He was clutching his face and saying 'Quick, get me seen to - I have been burned'."

Mr Pilkington said when he asked Rafiq what had happened he replied he had been burned by chip fat.

But in a statement read to Leeds Crown Court, the hospital receptionist said Rafiq claimed his injuries were due to a "flashover" while he was burning rubbish with petrol.

And the court heard how the 21-year-old gave the same explanation to a doctor after being transferred to a specialist burns unit in Preston, where his wounds were eventually assessed as superficial.

Reading from the statement of Yorkshire-based burns expert Dr John Settle, Mr Mansell said Rafiq's burns were not consistent from being inflicted from the "rising flames" of an open fire but from the flashover of an enclosed blaze.

More specifically, he said they were in line with him being close to a car being burned with petrol with a door open.

Zulfiqar Asif, 23, of Bradford Road, Keighley; Amjad Ali Azam, 21, of Surrey Street, Keighley; Mohammed Iqbal, 24, of Salt Street, Manningham, Bradford; Perveez Ashraf, 26, of Victoria Park View, Keighley; Zahir Bashir, 27, of Emley Street, Keighley; Mohammed Rafiq, 21, of Chatsworth Street, Keighley, and Atif Younis, 22, of Buxton Street, Keighley, all deny the charge.

The trial continues.