A teenager trained in karate punched a robber who stabbed him - and was only saved from serious injury by his body warmer.

The 18-year-old was sending a text message to a friend as he walked to a bus stop when he was approached by a man who ordered him to hand over his mobile phone.

He tried to walk past the man but felt a blow to his stomach, which he thought was a punch.

The former Notley High pupil - who has been training in karate since he was six - instinctively punched the robber in the face, knocking him backwards, and ran home to get help.

It was only later that he noticed that the blow to his stomach had been a lunge with a knife or screwdriver and he had a 6.5cm cut across his stomach.

* Full story in today's Braintree and Witham Times.