Last updated at 19:42 20 February 2007





As a child going to the circus, you might expect the clown to throw a bucket of confetti at you, or squirt you with water from the flower on his lapel.

You certainly wouldn't be prepared for him to grab you by the scruff of the neck, punch and kick you and leave you needing hospital treatment for cuts and bruises.

As these astonishing pictures show, that's what happened when 12-year-old Amos Lutz met Kaspar the Clown at a circus in Leipzig, Germany.

Scroll down for more...

Amos's mistake seems to have been to hurl a carton of his own confetti at Kaspar - otherwise known as Bernd Kalster, 47 - as he strolled by.

Clown Bernd Kalster, 47, punched and kicked helpless Amos Lutzer, 12, to the ground at Leipzig, Germany, then claimed it was self defence.

Kaspar clearly failed to see the funny side.

He took hold of Amos and punched and kicked him, even as the youngster curled into a ball to try to protect himself.

The clown has now been arrested and charged with causing actual bodily harm. He faces the prospect of six months in prison.

Amos said: 'At first I thought he was mucking about. But I went down hard on the ground and I saw him balling his fists and growling at me behind his smile.

'He really hit me hard. He was punching and kicking, swearing at me the whole time. I was very frightened. It's not like I threw a stone at him, just some fluffy bits of paper.'

Kaspar claimed Amos had struck him in the face after the clown told him off for throwing the confetti in an area where there were 'no litter' signs. But bystanders said only confetti was thrown and nothing more.

Amos's father Stephan Lutz, 43, said: 'My son doesn't lie.

'He thought he was being jolly throwing the confetti and this is how he was repaid. The clown's a psycho.'