POLICE are hunting for a tattooed man who battered a woman in a homophobic attack.
The 19-year-old was pushed to the ground and punched in the face in Glasgow city centre.
She was walking with a 16-year-old when the pair were targeted in St Enoch Square at 1am on Saturday.
Police said they were approached and verbally abused by the man, who punched the victim to the ground.
The suspect ran off after the attack, but police said his clothes and bag may have been torn in the struggle.
The victim was taken to the city's Royal Infirmary where she was treated for her injuries, but later released.
Officers said it had been a "nasty" and unprovoked attack. The male attacker, who has a full-sleeve tattoo, is described as being in his mid to late-20s, 6ft, with ginger hair. He was wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans and was carrying a black ruscksack.
Superintendent Alan Porte, who is leading the inquiry, said: "This was a nasty attack on two young women. Police Scotland has a zero-tolerance approach to tackling crime based on prejudice and I want to make clear it will not be tolerated.
"In relation to this serious assault, officers have been carrying out inquiries in the local area and studying CCTV in an effort to gather information on the man responsible.
"St Enoch Square may have been busy with people on nights out and I believe passing motorists or pedestrians may have seen something which could help us."
Anyone with information is urged to call Police Scotland on 101. All calls will be treated in confidence.
Last month it emerged the number of reports of hate crimes against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has risen by 22 per cent in a year., with 890 crimes last year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article