THREE paramedics needed hospital treatment after being brutally attacked while helping a patient.

The trio were hurt while assisting a patient at a private address in Weston-super-Mare at 12.15am on Sunday.

Paul Clarke, South West Ambulance service operations officer, said: "A large part of last night's shift spent in the emergency department following a disgusting and abhorrent attack on one of our crews."

An Avon and Somerset Constabulary spokesperson said: "Police were called to an address in Weston-super-Mare at about 12.15am on Sunday, June 17 by the ambulance service reporting that staff had been assaulted while trying to assist a patient.

"Officers attended promptly and assisted the ambulance crew in taking an 18-year-old man to hospital.

"The man was arrested on suspicion of wounding/GBH without intent and two counts of assault on three members of ambulance staff at the address in Weston.

"He was further arrested for a public order offence at the hospital and later released under investigation pending further enquiries."

Shocking figures show 99.7 per cent of assaults on ambulance staff in the South West did not result in prison for the offender in the past year.

Frontline medics reported being held hostage at knifepoint, broken limbs and one terrifying ordeal where a mentally unwell person tried to drag a medic over the side of a bridge.

The shocking accounts were released by the union for ambulance workers alongside figures which show out of almost 300 assaults reported to police, only one person was jailed.

The anonymous reports come from a GMB survey carried out in February and March 2018.