This is how Good Samaritan Keith Wood was left after being beaten up by a gang of up to 20 jeering teenagers he confronted as they threatened to burn a neighbour's home.

The gang laughed and snapped pictures on their mobile camera phones as they brutally attacked the dad-of-two who had stood up to them in the street over threats to set fire to a friend's garden furniture.

Mr Wood, who suffered a stroke two years ago, was left with a fractured eye socket, an injured elbow and needing seven stitches above and below his eye.

The mob of teens had turned on him and a friend as they walked down Fifth Street in Low Moor, Bradford, on their way home from an evening out.

"We noticed my friend's wife was in her garden and she was in tears," he said.

A group of teenagers sitting on the wall of playing fields belonging to Low Moor First School had been harassing her after she had also confronted them for moving her garden furniture.

He said: "They took it from her garden and put it on the road and threatened to set fire to it. They also threatened to set fire to her house."

Mr Wood, who will turn 50 next month, said he confronted the gang but they denied doing anything wrong. He said: "I went and asked them to move on, which they did, apart from one girl of about 16 who decided to give me a bit of verbal.

"She started to punch me in the face, so I pushed her away. She said I had hit her. They just turned and started kicking and punching me."

Mr Wood said the teenagers stopped after his 16-year-old son stepped in.

"I have never experienced anything like it in my life - a mass of people coming towards me.

"I didn't know where to run. They were constantly kicking and thumping. They were laughing and taking pictures of me bleeding on their mobile phones," he said.

The police were called but they arrived after Mr Wood had been taken to Dewsbury District Hospital by a relative.

He said his family was being terrorised by the teenagers, who he said had been drinking lager.

"We are being intimidated. There is no stopping them now, anything they want to do they can do," he said, adding that his wife, Susan, and their 21-year-old daughter and teenage son were frightened to step out of the house.

"I have been here all my life and I have never witnessed anything like this. If I was by myself they would go for me again," he said.

And Mrs Wood said: "I have been married to him for 30 years."

Both Mr and Mrs Wood said they had been disappointed by the police reaction to the attack, which happened on Saturday at about 11pm.

They criticised the amount of time it had taken officers to get to the scene. They also said there had been no rush to get a statement from Mr Wood.

A police spokesman said: "At 11.17pm on Saturday, Bradford South police received a report that a man had been assaulted by a group of people in Fifth Street, Low Moor, Bradford.

"He received injuries and was taken to hospital before police were available to attend.

"Unfortunately, at the time of the report, divisional patrol resources were dealing with a number of other emergency calls during a period of exceptional demand and no unit was available to attend immediately.

"At 11.34pm, we received a further call from the man's family reporting a group of youths outside their home and officers attended within ten minutes and the youths dispersed.

"An appointment was made for officers to speak to the victim on Monday afternoon. He attended the one-stop shop in Centenary Court, Forster Square, which is a multi-agency facility that sees police officers working alongside other agencies under one roof. A statement was taken from him in a private booth at the one-stop shop."

The first was a white, 16-year-old girl, with light coloured hair which was tied back. The second was a white youth, about six foot, aged about 18, of athletic build with gingerish-blond hair, short on the side and longer on top. He wore a dark jacket.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Bradford South CID on (01274) 376459.