windows ended up in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital after they attacked him.

Police spokesman Sgt. Chris Wilcox said the Cedar Park, Devonshire resident and two friends were playing basketball on the Prospect Primary School parking lot on Thursday evening when about a dozen young people arrived.

While watching the game some of the youths began throwing stones at the school windows, breaking some of the glass panes.

Sgt. Wilcox said the man approached the gang leader and asked him why he was trying to break school windows. An argument developed and then the gang leader allegedly punched the man and started kicking him.

Other group members joined in and helped beat up the man, he said. And when the man's friends tried to help him, they were held back by other gang members.

The man was taken to the hospital with serious injuries to his mouth and jaw.

His eyes and cheeks were swollen and his ribcage, shoulder and knee were injured.

He was detained at the hospital overnight for observations and possible surgery.

As a result of the incident, Sgt. Wilcox said Police were called back to Cedar Park twice on that night, at 6.20 p.m. and 10.30 p.m., to defuse a potentially unstable situation between gang members and residents who were seeking revenge for the assault.

The incident in under Police investigation.