A young man was set on fire by a gang of thugs as he walked through the grounds of a church in a homophobic attack.
The 20-year-old victim was left with serious burns after he was attacked by four men who had asked him about his sexuality near to the church in Stockton-on-Tees.
He had ignored them and kept walking through the grounds of the Holy Trinity Church, but one of the men approached him from behind, sprayed an aerosol at his legs and then set him alight.
Cleveland Police said the victim attended North Tees University Hospital, where he was treated for serious burns, which required skin grafts.
Officers are appealing for information about the incident, which happened at 3am on Wednesday.
A police statement said: "The man who lit the aerosol is described as white, in his early 20s, medium build, with short blond hair. He was bare-chested and wearing jogging bottoms.
"Officers are treating this as a homophobic hate crime and are asking anyone with information to come forward and call police on 101."
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