Dozens of people, particularly motorcyclists and cyclists, are trespassing on "truly dangerous" industrial land every week, a china clay mining firm boss has said.

Imerys in Cornwall said one worker was "punched to the ground" recently at Littlejohns pit, near Roche, after confronting an e-bike rider.

Company UK lead Mark Hewson said the number of such trespassers was growing in the hot weather, with staff were "reporting dozens [of cases] every week" in an environment where the company used trucks weighing more than 100 tonnes.

In a warning to others, he said: "It's a very dangerous industrial environment but our colleagues don't deserve to be abused and attacked like that."

Speaking to BBC Cornwall, Hewson explained: "The trucks we use on our land they can be three or four times the size of what you would see on a normal road - well in excess of 100 tonnes.

"If you're flying around on an e-bike there and a 100-tonne truck comes round the corner, clearly it's not going to create a good situation."

He said the worker allegedly attacked had approached a youth who was trespassing on an e-bike just under two weeks ago.

When the worker followed him, he found the teenage rider near a van with another adult male before he was "verbally abused and then physically assaulted and actually punched to the ground".

Hewson added the matter was being dealt with by police but noted the firm could continue to deal with such incidents.

In a plea to keep everyone safe, he said: "Please, please, please stay out of the industrial areas. They are truly dangerous industrial areas if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"And please respect our colleagues when you do come across [them] because nobody deserves what happened a couple of weeks ago."

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