A 15-year-old boy walked out of a Palmerston North polytechnic open day into an apparently random central city sidewalk beating.
The youth was visiting UCOL's centre-city Princess Street campus on Tuesday to see what the institution had to offer, Detective Constable Dave Wilson said.
As he walked past a bus stop immediately outside the school about 1pm, he was stopped by two men, who started punching him in the face.
"It looks like it was wrong place, wrong time. After talking to the victim, there was nothing to suggest his attackers were UCOL students or anything," Mr Wilson told NZPA.
The boy suffered chipped teeth and bruising from the punches and required medical attention after the attack.
Each of the men landed about two punches on the boy's head, he said.
