Police Officers (Getty Images)

A man who was attacked in Glasgow while trying to help his friend who was subjected to serious homophobic abuse has been left with a serious facial injury.

The 22-year-old man was with his friend on Kersland Street, Glasgow, when a separate man approached them and verbally abused them.

The man intervened in the verbal abuse which was directed against his friend and was then assaulted.

He was taken to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and later released.

The incident is being treated as a hate crime.

Det Con Stuart McDonald Police Scotland said: “This despicable individual not only subjected an innocent man to homophobic abuse, but also assaulted his friend when he came to his aid.

“This type of behaviour is absolutely unacceptable and I would appeal to anyone who either witnessed the incident, or saw the man and woman described above, to please get in touch.”

Police are seeking a suspect described as white and in his early 20s.

He was wearing a black top and black tracksuit bottoms.

He was with a woman who is also in her early 20s, 5ft 6in and blonde.

Earlier this year a man was fined for shouting “disgusting” homophobic abuse in Glasgow train station.

The frontman of Scottish indie rock band The View faced allegations of homophobic abuse last year.

29-year-old Kyle Falconer was detained in June after he allegedly became “violent and disruptive” on a budget airline Jet2 flight from Spain to Glasgow.

The singer, who is most famous for the band’s 2007 hit Same Jeans, was reported at the time to have become abusive after he was not permitted to sit next to his girlfriend.

He was accused of “shouting, swearing and acting aggressively towards other passengers ‘whilst in possession of two bottles’” as well as using homophobic slurs against one cabin member.