POLICE have appealed to a community for help to ­identify a group of youths who slashed the face of a 38-year-old woman.

Officers investigating the unprovoked assault on a woman as she left Airdrie Sports Centre in North Lanarkshire on Saturday morning say the group were hanging around outside.

She suffered serious ­lacerations to her face and was taken for treatment to Monklands Hospital.

The five youths are described as white, between 15 and 16 years old.

One was wearing a white T-shirt and had dirty blond hair. A second was wearing yellow shorts and had brown hair.

The third youth, who has fair hair, was wearing peach-coloured shorts and the fourth was wearing a dark-coloured top.

Detective Sergeant Kenny Dalrymple said: "I am sure local people will know who these young men are and I am appealing to them to contact us."