An Iranian asylum seeker has told how he was stabbed in the stomach and hit with a bottle after being surrounded by a gang in Glasgow.

Masood Gomroki was assaulted in the Sighthill area of the city as he went to buy a bus pass.

The 32-year-old said he now wanted to leave Britain for a country "where I can live in peace".

Strathclyde Police are seeking seven white youths aged between 18 and 20 in connection with the attack on Friday evening.

I realised they were going to do something, but I couldn't run away because they surrounded me Masood Gomroki

The victim was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary for treatment after what detectives described as a "serious assault".

Mr Gomroki, who has spent two-and-a-half years in Scotland, said he moved to Sighthill three weeks ago after his asylum application was refused.

He said he had left Iran because he feared political persecution.

"I thought this would be a safe country, but now I realise it is not," he said.

He said people in Iran were "much more civilised" than those in the UK.

'Nothing has changed'

"I want to leave Britain and go to some other country which is safe, where I can live in peace.

"I fled for my life from Iran, but nothing has changed," he claimed.

Mr Gomroki was attacked outside a shopping centre in Huntingdon Square at about 1900 GMT on Friday.

Strathclyde Police are keeping an open mind

Speaking through an interpreter, he said that a group of young men approached him and asked him the time.

"I realised they were going to do something, but I couldn't run away because they surrounded me," he said.

"They asked me 'Where are you from - Iran, Iraq, Turkey?' Then they started attacking me.

"One had a knife and was trying to stab me with it. I grabbed the knife to try and stop him, but somebody behind me hit me on the head with a bottle.

"I was stabbed twice and had to have stitches in my head."

Strathclyde Police said on Saturday that they were keeping an open mind on any possible motives for the attack.

Found guilty

Detective Constable Stephen Stewart of Baird Street CID appealed for any witnesses or anyone with information about the attack to come forward.

There were protests in the area last year following the murder of a Kurdish asylum seeker.

Scott Burrell, 26, was jailed for life after being found guilty of fatally stabbing 25-year-old Firsat Dag last August.

An allegation that the murder was racially motivated was withdrawn by prosecutors during the trial.