A pair of drunken soldiers attacked the manager of a Chinese takeaway in a racist attack, a jury has been told.

Colin Best and Neil Barton shouted racist abuse as they kicked Steven Wong on the ground outside the New World on Chippenham's Market Place, a court heard.

The men, from Royal Logistics Corps based at Hullavington, had been out drinking at the Four Seasons Bar in the town centre before the incident on December 18 last year.

Barton, 28, who has since left the Army, admitted his part in the attack but 22-year-old Best, who is currently posted in Iraq, denies any wrongdoing.

Best, who was wearing a blue jacket on the night of the incident, claims he was trying to usher away his drunk colleague who was being abusive and only punched the takeaway boss in self defence after the Chinese man hit him with a metal bar.

Mr Wong, speaking with the help of an interpreter, told the jury of seven men and five women how he was knocked to the ground when Barton, who was dressed in white, punched him on the pavement outside the store.

"The one in the white clothes punched me on the chin, on both sides. He punched me twice," he said.

"I fell down. Then the man in blue came up and kicked me as well and both attacked me on the floor. He kicked me to the ribs and legs. He kicked me quite a bit, quite a lot of times."

Earlier the jury at Swindon Crown Court had been told that Barton had been the louder of the men when they went into the takeaway.

However both men were swearing and racially abusing Mr Wong before he asked them to leave, they heard.

Mr Wong said that he had a dessert spoon in his hand when he followed the men out of the shop and accepts he may have raised it or hit out with it in the fracas.

At an earlier hearing Barton, of Fazakerley, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated common assault and two counts of racially aggravated threatening behaviour.

Best, of Peterlee, County Durham, denies common assault and racially aggravated common assault.

The case continues.