A 15-year-old boy was set-upon and bashed unconscious by a gang of three teens outside Chadstone Shopping Centre.

Police say the boy, Yianni, will need extensive dental work years after the brazen unprovoked attack.

The teenager was waiting at a bus stop to head to the shopping centre on Sunday at 12:30pm to get some lunch and use the free wi-fi, when a group of
three teenage boys approached him asking for cigarettes.

After Yianni replied he did not smoke, the group walked away, only to return a few minutes later.

“One started to touch my phone, and I asked: ‘what do you guys want from me?'” Yianni told reporters at a police press conference this week.

The three boys then surrounded Yianni and began punching him.

“I yelled for help … I looked at [bystanders] but they just kept on walking,” Yianni said.

“I remember being punched and then I woke up with blood all over the floor and people telling me I was going to be all right.”

Police say the attack lasted less than 10 seconds, with the offenders running off with the 15-year-old’s phone.

Yianni, a year nine student at Oakleigh Grammar has taken a week off from school to nurse a deep cut above his eye, a lump on the back of his head and two dislodged teeth.

Yianni’s mother, Sia said the family had spent $6000 in braces for her son which came off in May. Just the week before they had been given the all clear from Yianni’s orthodontist.

His mother has deplored the violence and said in the police conference that it is “completely unacceptable to act in such a way”.

“I have to block [the anger] so that I can be strong for Yianni, but there come times where all I can see is Yianni being knocked and punched and not being able to defend himself. Never could I have imagined seeing him like I did in that ambulance.”

Police are asking witnesses who were in the area at the time to come forward.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Source: Fairfax Media