A TAXI driver attacked by up to three teenage girls outside an Ipswich nightclub, today relived his ordeal.John Storey said he was the victim of a sustained and vicious attack after he tried to prevent one of the teens damaging his car following an argument with a passenger.

A TAXI driver attacked by up to three teenage girls outside an Ipswich nightclub, today relived his ordeal.

John Storey said he was the victim of a sustained and vicious attack after he tried to prevent one of the teens damaging his car following an argument with a passenger.

The violent incident is the latest in a series faced by drivers in Ipswich.

On Saturday The Evening Star reported how they are threatening to boycott Lloyds Avenue rank unless something is done to prevent them from physical and verbal abuse as well as criminal damage to their vehicles.

Mr Story said he was assaulted around 2.15am on Tuesday when he picked up a fare outside Liquid nightclub in Cardinal Park.

A young woman unconnected with attack, got into his car followed by two men who asked to go to Hadleigh. Mr Storey said one of the men then got into a row with another girl who was also waiting for a taxi.

The 61-year-old, of Wigmore Close, Ipswich, said: "The girl standing at the rank started arguing with one of the boys who had not shut the door. She came round to the back passenger side and started kicking my car and screaming. I shouted at her, got out of the car and had to pull her away. The next thing two or three young girls started attacking me. They were all about 18 or 19-years-old. They were kicking and thumping me. I was trying to hold my glasses on with one hand while trying to push one of them off with the other. One blonde girl was quite vicious."

Mr Storey estimates the assault continued for three to four minutes before he could get away.

He said: "I managed to push two of them off me. I jumped in my car and drove off with my doors still open."

Mr Storey, who has been a taxi driver since the mid-1990s, said the man involved in the original argument and his friend had got out of his Ford Scorpio before drove off.

When he reached the security hut at Cardinal Park, he stopped and told his female passenger she would have to get out as he was going to the police station to report the attack.

Mr Storey said since he began driving taxis he has seen violent incidents against drivers increase, particularly in areas around nightspots.

He said: "There is so much trouble at these places. I just think you have got to have more police patrolling the ranks or the doormen to be there until people have gone in order to stop these fights.

"I was just gobsmacked. You don't expect it from 18 and 19-year-olds. I was so shaken up I just came home."

A spokeswoman for Ipswich police confirmed officers would investigating Mr Storey's complaint. She added that officers were aware of the taxi drivers' concerns and were working to tackle the issue.

The spokeswoman also said that around an hour after the incident involving the taxi driver, a woman had reported her handbag had been stolen when she was trying to break up a fight between two girls at Cardinal Park.