A man had his ear bitten off during an attack in Coleraine early today.
He was approached and assaulted by a group of four or five men in the Co Derry town's Beresford Road some time between 12.30am and 1am, said police.
The injured man was taken to the Causeway Hospital, along with his severed ear, and then transferred to the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald outside Belfast where doctors in the micro surgery department sought to sew it back on.
A police spokesman appealed for any witnesses to the attack or anyone who noticed the culprits as they ran off towards Beresford Place, to contact them.
PA