London: A Karate kick by a 10-year-old student shattered his teacher's leg and broke her kneecap in a classroom attack.

Diane Whitehead, 53, had to undergo surgery to pin her leg back together after she was karate-kicked by the boy.

She could be now forced off work for more than a year, while she recovers from her injuries.

Shockingly, it is the second time has been was attacked. Two years ago, she suffered two broken ribs in an assault by another pupil, the Daily Mail reported.

Union bosses called for more protection for teachers after a rise in the number of assaults in the classroom in recent years.

Whitehead's parents Gordon and Wendy Mann, of Walton, Wakefield said the school was a local-authority-run centre for children with special needs.

But they said that it should not mean that teachers doing their job should be put at risk from assault from disruptive and violent pupils.

A mother of two, Whitehead, who studied at Greenwich University and can speak four languages, would almost certainly return to the school despite the horrific injuries she suffered, her father Gordon Mann said.

The incident happened earlier this month at the Burwood School in Orpington, Kent, a school for children with special needs whose mainstream schooling has broken down.

"The boy was being very disruptive during class and had been told to calm down several times. He was creating a problem. It escalated and my daughter and another teacher tried to restrain him, as they are trained to do so," Mann said.

"He then head-butted the other teacher and knocked her out. He then whipped round with a karate type kick on my daughter's leg, breaking it badly," he added.

The two teachers were taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital with the other woman suffering from bruises and a facial injury.

The 10-year-old boy has been bailed until mid-February.

Tags: Karate, Karate kick, Pupil kicks teacher, Student kicks teacher