CALLOUS thugs injured an eight-year-old boy after setting a barbed wire trap across a popular footpath in Totton.

Conner Lee, pictured above with his mum Debbie, cycled face-first into the trap as he was on his way to school.

The length of thick metal wire with three-inch spikes slashed both his cheeks and made a deep cut under his left eye. He also sustained cuts around his hairline and above both ears.

Mum Debbie has branded whoever did it as "stupid" and said her son was lucky his injuries were not worse.

Dozens of children use the alleyway as a route to school.

Police have launched an investigation into what they described as a "nasty" incident.