A Santa sleigh was attacked by yobs chanting ‘paedophile’ during a charity collection for Christmas.
Bridlington Round Table members are furious after adult and child volunteers, some as young as five, were chased around the Yorkshire town last night.
A group of thugs even threw cans at the group, forcing them to ‘form a human shield’ to protect the sleigh and their Father Christmas.
The group, part of the national charity organisation, runs sleighs to raise money for local charities.
A group of Bridlington Round Table volunteers and its Santa sleigh was attacked by yobs as it made its way around the Yorkshire town collecting charity donations. The group is pictured last night before the attack
One volunteer, who did not wish to be named, said normally the night was very good and made a lot of money for local charities.
He said: ‘For some reason last night a group of youths decided to attack the sleigh, the volunteers and even threaten the children carrying charity buckets.
‘These yobs were threatening the children with us that if they didn’t give the buckets of money over they would beat them up.
‘There were about 10 or 11 of these youths, aged between 14 and 18-years-old. Because it got that hostile we had to get the members to create a line around the sleigh to protect Santa at one point.
‘One the youngest children we had with us volunteering was five-years-old, it’s a sad state of affairs because we had to put children in our cars to keep them safe.’
He said at one stage they had to speed up the sleigh from its usual 2mph because the gang continued to follow them.
At one point the group had to form a human shield around the Father Christmas to protect him as the yobs threw cans at them
The volunteer said estates usually would take an hour to go around but last night it took only 20 minutes.
He said: ‘Because we were concentrating on protecting the children we didn’t really have time to call the police or anything like that.
‘Quite a lot of people have said why don’t you have PSCOs go around with you next year, but I can’t see that working.
‘I want to stress that 95 percent of people were supportive and helping us in these areas, but it just took this one pocket to make it a bad night.
‘We’ve had a lot of messages of support now and we plan to take Santa out again on Sunday.’
A former Round Table member, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘They were calling Santa a paedophile, shouting “paedo, paedo”.
‘You sometimes get kids asking for sweets or hanging onto the sleigh for a bit of fun but we’ve never seen anything like this.
‘There was one child on a mobility scooter who we don’t think was disabled who was hurling cans at them.’
The group also wrote on Facebook warning that it would change the route : ‘Thanks to everyone who came out to see Santa tonight.
The Round Table branch alerted people to the attack on Facebook, pictured, and said if there was any more trouble they would change the route
‘Unfortunately the night was spoilt towards the end. It is NOT acceptable nor human behaviour to throw cans at our volunteers, nor is it to spit, swear and try steal money and sweets off our volunteers; especially from the Children committing the above !!. (sic)
‘Our volunteers do NOT do this to be abused in anyway and certainly do not expect it.
‘When we have to put our children in the car for their safety it is a bad day.
‘If this happens again, the latter part of tonight’s route will be cut.
‘We appreciate they are in the minority and it would be a shame if all the appreciative individuals had to miss out on Santa’s visit due to the stupidity of a few.’