POLICE in Burnley launched a manhunt when a teenager was savagely attacked with a knife.

The 15-year-old, from Nelson, suffered a broken nose and needed 43 stitches in her face after she was assaulted, unprovoked, in the early hours of the morning.

At the time, Det Insp Derek Wilkinson described the wanted man as an 'animal'.

An unusual dagger or paper knife was found by police at the scene of the attack, which happened between Mansergh Street and Killington Street.

DI Wilkinson said: "Someone must know something about this knife and we want to hear from them."

The schoolgirl had been walking home from an evening with friends when the vicious assault took place at around 3am on a Saturday in January 1982.

The man had run up behind the girl and pushed her to the ground. Her screams woke people in the area who cared for her and called an ambulance.