Police are investigating a vicious gang attack after a man was smashed in the face by three thugs as he walked along a street.

Central CID have also opened a separate case file into a man who was robbed at knifepoint by three different attackers hours later.

The first attack left a man with broken bones in his face when he was set upon at 8 p.m. on Friday as he walked along Curving Avenue.

Incident room detectives said the three men punched the 37-year-old victim in the face and punched and kicked him as he lay on the ground.

The victim, from Pembroke, managed to wriggle free and call an ambulance from the Rambling Lane area when a passer-by scared off the attackers. Suspect number one is described as a slim, dreadlocked, brown-skinned man who is five foot seven inches tall, aged around 18 and wearing a cloth hat.

Police described suspect number two as a short, heavily-built dark-skinned man. Officers said he was five foot tall with a close cropped haircut.

And suspect number three is described as a slim, brown-skinned, 19-year-old wearing a blue rain suit. He is around five foot nine inches tall with a close haircut.

Officers investigating the knifepoint robbery said the victim was forced to hand over his wallet, bank card and a "significant amount'' of cash on Angle Street in north Hamilton.

The victim, also from Pembroke, told Police two men and a woman set upon him in the early hours of Saturday morning.

One of the attackers hit him about the legs with a torch and another, brandishing the knife, demanded he hand over all his possessions.

Police are hunting a tall black man, an average-height, clean-shaven brown-skinned man with short curly hair and a black woman with neck-length curly hair.

Anyone with information should call Crimestoppers on 1-800-623-8477 or detectives on 295-0011.

Police also questioned a 15-year-old girl suspected of carrying out a weekend charity cash con at a hotel on Pitts Bay Road.

Officers said the girl asked for money from staff and guests, showing a letter from a foreign group claiming to collect funds for the Salvation Army.

The hotel manager called local Salvation Army representatives who said the girl was not officially collecting for them.

She was taken to Hamilton Police station and was bailed to reappear later this month.