A taxi driver who was beaten up and knocked unconscious was told to make his own way to hospital - while paramedics treated his attacker for a panic attack.

Rob King, 64, was waiting in his cab outside a kebab shop in Sheerness, Kent, when a man approached his taxi and hurled punches through the open window.

Mr King, a grandfather and former boxer, was knocked out cold in the unprovoked attack, which left him with a broken cheekbone and a missing front tooth.

Rob King was asked to drive himself to hospital despite being left unconscious and with serious injuries

He said he couldn't believe it when he called 999 to alert police and call for an ambulance, but was told that an ambulance couldn't be sent to pick him up because they were 'too busy' and that he should make his own way to hospital.

He said: 'Because my injuries weren't considered life threatening, I was asked if someone else could drive me.

'Then I learned my ambulance had been sent to my attacker who was suffering a panic attack in the High Street and was unable to breathe.'

The cabbie was driven the 20-miles to the Medway Maritime Hospital by a fellow taxi driver at Royal Taxis.

His partner Dhareigne Pearce, 56, said the attack, which took place on July 1 this year, had left her partner 'badly shaken up' and too scared to go back to work.

'Rob was waiting for a fare outside a kebab shop when this yob came over and punched the hell out of him through the open window.

The grandfather was left battered and bruised in the unprovoked attack

'It was so fast and vicious that it knocked him for six', she told the Sheerness Times Guardian newspaper.

A spokesman for the South East Coast Ambulance Service confirmed that it was called to attend Mr King at 3.20am, but that due to a 'high level of demand', operators asked him to make his own way to hospital.

They also confirmed that an ambulance was sent to treat a man outside the Cyprus Kebab & Pizza takeaway at 3.50am who was 'having trouble breathing' - with paramedics staying with him for an hour.

The spokesman said: 'Because we had a very high level of demand that night we asked if he (Mr King) could make his own way to hospital as the injuries weren't life-threatening.

In better times: The former boxer said he was shocked at the way the ambulance service treated him

'We later received a call at 3.50am to a man outside the Cyprus Kebab & Pizza shop who was having trouble breathing.

'We sent one ambulance crew which stayed with him for an hour. He didn't require hospital treatment.'

The spokesman added: 'We apologise to the taxi driver, but this was an extremely busy night mainly because of the hot weather.'

A Kent Police spokesman confirmed that a 19-year-old man had been arrested at the scene and had now been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and as due before magistrates in Maidstone on July 26.

The grandfather and former boxer was attacked unprovoked by a yob. A 19-year-old has been arrested