Police have charged an 18-year-old man with assaulting two police officers and a teenage girl, and with possession of a machete, following an incident in Stowmarket earlier this week.

Dylan Craig is due to appear before magistrates in Ipswich today after being charged with a total of eight offences, including GBH on a female police officer, assaulting a 17-year-old girl and possession of a bladed article.

A 17-year-old girl was reported to have been assaulted in Stowmarket on Wednesday evening.

On the same night, two police officers were allegedly assaulted in the town, with one suffering a fractured eye socket and broken jaw.

Police were called to reports of two men fighting in Newton Road at about 8.30pm.

The disturbance was linked with an earlier incident in which two 17-year-old girls were approached in Station Road East by an unknown man acting aggressively.

He was then alleged to have produced a machete and struck one of the girls on the leg before punching her.

Three males, aged 16, 18, 21, were arrested over the course of the evening.

The 16-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of assault, while the 21-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of affray.

Police are also investigating another assault which happened in Ipswich Road earlier in the evening when a 56-year-old man was punched in the face and a bottle was thrown at his car windscreen.

Officers are linking the attack with the vandalism of two cars in the town on Friday, May 22, with both vehicles having their windows smashed.

Craig, of Hill Rise, Stowmarket, has been charged with causing one police officer grievous bodily harm with intent, assaulting a male officer occasioning actual bodily harm, assaulting a teenage girl by beating, possession of a bladed article and criminal damage in connection with the breaking of a car windscreen on the same night.

He has also been charged with a further two criminal damage offences relating to broken windscreens on two vehicles on May 22.

Craig appeared via video link at Ipswich Magistrates’ Court on Friday, where he was remanded in custody pending a hearing at Ipswich Crown Court later in the afternoon.

The 16-year-old boy and the 21-year-old man who were also arrested have been released without charge and will face no further action in connection with the assaults.

However, the 16-year-old boy remains under investigation on suspicion of possession of cannabis.