A lesbian teenager was attacked and beaten by a group of four teenage boys in the Canadian city of Calgary last week.

The attack, which happened late at night last Thursday (11 April), is being treated by police as a possible hate crime.

The 17-year-old victim was approached by the group as she was on her way home from a friend’s house, CTV News reports.

Despite her efforts to run away, the group punched and kicked the girl several times as well as hurling a number of homophobic slurs at her.

The victim, who has asked not to be identified, said one of her attackers also filmed the beating on his phone.

In an interview with Sun News, she said: ‘I want them to be found and I want people to know this is still happening.’

‘I usually feel so safe and everyone says I’m a tank because I’m a hockey player and no-one ever messes with me, but now I feel so cowardly that I keep looking over my shoulder.’

‘I have a black eye, a split lip, the inside of my cheek is cut, a cut on my forehead, and my eye is so swollen I can barely open,’ the victim added.

Police working in the community of New Brighton remain unsure of the motives for the attack, which is being investigated by the Crown Prosecution Service’s Hate Crimes Unit.

Uncertainties surround whether the victim was targeted randomly, or because of her sexuality.

Sexual orientation is explicitly mentioned as a ground of prohibited discrimination in the human rights acts of all jurisdictions in Canada.