A teenager took an exam despite having been stabbed through the thigh with a screwdriver in a racist attack, it has been revealed.

Bradley Halton, 18, was attacked by a group of four or five Asian men as he walked to his exam at Barking & Dagenham College in East London.

The group shouted racist abuse at him, and one man grabbed his throat before another threw an arm around his waist and bundled him to the ground.

Bradley Halton, 18, a trainee decorator, sat an exam at Barking and Dagenham College in East London despite suffering four stab wounds which he had plugged with tissue paper

The group then punched and kicked Mr Halton before one man stabbed him four times in the back of his right thigh with a screwdriver.

Despite his wounds Mr Halton carried on walking to his exam, plugged his wounds up with tissue paper, and then sat the test without telling examiners.

Mr Halton was punched, kicked and stabbed with a screwdriver by four Asian men in a racist attack

One of his friends said: 'He must be the most dedicated exam candidate. He told us the pain got worse the longer he spent on the exam, but nothing would stop him completing it.'

It was only after the test finished that Mr Halton, a trainee decorator, called his girlfriend to say the pain had become unbearable, at which point she dialled 999.

An ambulance took Mr Halton, from Dagenham, to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel where doctor's gave him an x-ray and stitches before calling his mother.

Donna, 41, feared her son was dead when she first heard the news. She said: 'I was thinking he was lying in a gutter somewhere.

'But he just carried on and went to college to sit the exam after getting some tissues to put in the holes in his leg.'

Mr Halton is in the second year of his vocational course at college, and returned to school for the first time yesterday after the attack.

A Met Police spokesman said: 'At 2.45pm on September 16, police were called by the ambulance to the home of an 18-year-old man from Dagenham who had suffered a stab wound to his leg.

'The victim alleged that he was attacked from behind by a group of Asian males at 9am that morning. He was punched and kicked to the ground and stabbed in the thigh.

'This appears to have been a motiveless attack. No property was stolen.'

Anyone with information should contact Barking and Dagenham CID by dialling 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 quoting reference 5115029/14.