Westbury mother Erika Gane has spoken of the terrifying moment she thought her son Tyler was going to die after being stabbed on his way home from a party.

The 16-year-old suffered a stab wound several inches long and was left ‘just a couple of millimetres from death’ after trying to protect his twin brother Loui in a terrifying attack.

The twins and a group of friends were returning home from a party at about 11pm on Saturday night when they stopped at what is locally known as Dilton Marsh roundabout in Tanyard Way.

A man approached the group before pulling out a knife and stabbing Tyler through the chest and causing cuts to Loui’s hands.

Miss Gane, 34, said: “At first he didn’t know he’d been stabbed. It wasn’t until a friend started backing away from him and crying did he realise what had happened.

“I got a call from his friend’s mum and I was just in shock, I couldn’t take in what she was saying and I was just stuttering.

“He’d been taken back to a friend’s house and when I got there I wasn’t allowed to go to him I was stopped by some policemen but I was screaming and there was blood everywhere.

“Tyler was just saying to me ‘it’s alright mum’ and ‘don’t let my mum see the cut’, he was just so calm and he was trying to reassure me he was alright.”

Tyler, a pupil at St Laurence School in Bradford on Avon, was rushed to Southmead Hospital where he underwent a two-hour operation to close the wound which required internal stitching after tearing a peck muscle.

Miss Gane added: “I could tell from the blood and efforts of the paramedics that it was serious.

“I asked one of them if he was going to die and they said ‘let’s concentrate on trying to stop the bleeding’.

“They were trying to reassure him but the way they were looking at each other you could just tell it was serious.”

Despite suffering life-threatening injuries, Tyler was able to return home on Monday less than 48 hours after the attack.

Now, Miss Gane is urging anyone with information to come forward and help track down the attacker who fled from the scene.

“It was unprovoked, you don’t think this would happen here it’s not like a city it’s a little village," she said.

“I can’t understand why anyone would be carrying a knife in the first place let along approach a group of teenagers.

“You just don’t expect it to happen to your child, it’s not EastEnders.”

The attacker has been described as being aged between 20-30, with shortish black hair. He was wearing a blue jacket and either blue jeans or grey jogging bottoms.

He is thought to be about 5ft 8in to 5ft 9 in tall.

Anyone with information is asked to call 101 and ask for DI Franklin.