POLICE are warning youngsters against the "happy slap" craze which is sweeping the borough.

The so-called game is believed to have started in the US and consists of one person randomly slapping an unsuspecting victim while another videos it with a mobile phone.

But it can have lead to serious injuries one 11-year-old boy was left with a broken nose and swollen lip after being slapped.

And another student has been suspended from school after assaulting a teaching assistant during a lunch break.

A third incident saw two 13-year-old girls assaulted while waiting for a bus in Orpington. Both were slapped around the head and face by another girl of similar age while a boy of about 15 took pictures.

A Bromley police spokesman said: "We are treating these incidents seriously and are letting it be known reports of such incidents will be treated as criminal assaults and bullying.

"There has already been an incidence in the borough where arrests have been made for assault and video-phones confiscated to retrieve deleted evidence.

"These types of assaults are particularly unpleasant as they are premeditated and unprovoked."