A Cotswold shopkeeper is 'lucky to be alive' after being attacked with crowbars and mowed down by a car after stepping in to defend a Polish boy from racist thugs.

Amo Singh, 33, was brutally assaulted and left for dead outside his convenience shop in the trendy town of Stroud, Gloucestershire.

He intervened after seeing six boys and two girls attack a 15-year-old Eastern European boy - and armed himself with a baseball bat when they turned on him.

Shocking CCTV footage shows them raining down punches and some hitting Amo with crowbars and baseball bats.

One of the brutes then drives a car into him, sending him flying into the air.

Others continue to thump and kick his crumpled body as he lies on the ground before the driver reverses over him.

The culprits fled in two cars after the attack outside Premier Stores in Cashes Green, at 10.30pm on Sunday.

Amazingly, Amo survived the sickening attack and is now conscious and being treated at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in Gloucester.

He suffered a head wound which required stitches, bruises all over his body, and had surgery on a broken wrist yesterday.

Shocking CCTV footage shows the thugs raining down punches and some hitting Amo with crowbars and baseball bats

One of the groupthen drives a car into him, sending him flying into the air

His traumatised wife Sandy, 33, described the attack as 'attempted murder' and shared the CCTV with a local paper in a bid to help police catch the attackers.

She said: 'The boy was getting beaten up outside the fish and chip shop.

'My husband went outside with a bat to scare them off, even though I begged him not to.

'They cornered him and started hitting him and then one of them drove straight into him at full speed and he went flying.

'Then they ran him over and started hitting him again.

'My husband is lucky to be alive. I thought they might have killed him. He was just trying to help the boy.'

Sandy said the attackers used racist language while assaulting her husband, and that she believes the 15-year-old boy was targeted because he's Polish.

Cashes Green Stores in Stroud, where shop owner Amo Singh, 33, who brutally beaten by a gang of thugs

The area of Stroud near the store. The culprits fled in two cars following the sickening attack

The youngster suffered head injuries and was also rushed to A&E.

Gloucestershire Constabulary said: 'We were called to reports of people vandalising cars outside shops in Queens Drive shortly after 10.35pm on Sunday 26 March.

'Officers attended and found a man who had been assaulted and run over with a car.

'The man suffered a broken wrist and head injuries that were not deemed life threatening or life changing.

'Inquiries are ongoing and anyone with information should call 101, quoting incident 499 of 26 March.'