A Catholic teenager on his way back from a film extra gig was beaten to an inch of his life and left for dead when he drove through a Protestant neighborhood in Belfast.

James Turley was an extra on the movie “The Good Man’”starring Aidan Gillen.

He and four other Catholic friends were driving through the Village area in Belfast near the city center when a mob of Protestant youths set on them, reports the Irish Independent.

The gang surrounded their car and they were forced to abandon it and run for their lives.

He ran to a nearby house and screamed at the occupants “"Please help me. They're going to kill me."

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The gang surrounded the house shouting "There's a Taig(Catholic)  in there."

He said: "They all just came in and started beating me."

He said. "They stamped on my head and everywhere. The woman (the householder) said: 'Get him out of my garden' and they dragged me out into the alley.

"They just started beating me again. They put me in a bin and were pushing me somewhere. I didn't know where I was going ... when I got put in the bin I thought that was it.

"I think they realised they couldn't beat me when I was in the bin. They kicked or pushed it over and dragged me out of it."

The teenager was beaten unconscious "I started to come around and then I heard them saying: 'That's enough. I think he's dead'."

Later he managed to flag down a passing car and he was driven to the hospital.

 His mother Donna, whose husband Frank was murdered in 1998,said: "It's like deja vu. I can't remember getting to the hospital. I just kept thinking: 'Please, please, just let him hang on for me'."

He is expected to make a full recovery.