A Warwick teenager claims she was beaten up by Police in an attack in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Shariffa Simmons,17, said she and a group of friends were approached by Police while they were sitting in a car across the street from Flanagan's Irish Pub on Front Street at around 1 a.m.

Miss Simmons said she was chatting with her friends when officers came and asked them to get out of the car. When she asked them why she claimed they were ordered out of the vehicle.

"They pulled us out of the car and I kept saying `I don't want to deal with this' and `why are you doing this?'," she said.

She said the group was lined up alongside the car and searched.

And when Miss Simmons kept up her protest over their treatment "they hit me with a baton".

"The cop then put his baton up to my throat and held it there choking me," she said. "It was like a baseball bat and he was hitting me with it and I held my arms over my head.

"The cop told me to shut up and flung me into the Police car and told me `why don't you f*** off'.

"I cursed him back because he was cursing me and he hit me in the face."

She said initially there were six Police officers at the scene, two black and four white, all males.

Then a female officer arrived after she was flung into the car by one of the male officers.

She said the female officer said: "You must want to get beat up tonight."

The teen claimed that she was then dragged to Hamilton Police Station and searched.

"When they saw I had an asthma pump they said `if you had an attack what are we supposed to do?"

"They thought I was lying about my name, but I didn't have any identification on me, because I didn't think I needed any - we just came into town.

"My boyfriend tried to say something and kept asking them, `what are you doing to my girl?' But the Police told him that unless he wanted to spend a night in the lock-up, he needed to shut his mouth.

"My boyfriend does not have a criminal record, so he kept quiet and called my family. I was arrested for using offensive words, but they had begun cursing at me first."

Bermuda Police spokesman Robin Simmons said: "I only have a report stating that she was arrested for using offensive words, but I cannot comment on anything else.

All members of the public who feel that they have been treated inappropriately by the Police, have the right to make a formal complaint."