The Yorkshire Air Ambulance said such "senseless stupidity" could cause life-threatening delays and prevent landing at the site of serious incidents.

After two other laser attacks in the same week, a third hit technical crew member Alex Clark in the eye and burned his cornea.

Mr Clark is expected to make a full recovery but chief pilot Owen McTeggart warned it "doesn't take much" for eyes to be permanently damaged by a laser, which are already a "massive distraction".

The charity says the attacks are "intermittent" and "seemingly random", with no obvious motive.

"If we get a laser attack while trying to land at the site of an incident, it means we cannot land, and the injured person on the ground doesn't get the care that we are there to provide," Mr McTeggart said.

"A lot of it is ignorance to the implications it can have on our operations. And I'm sure most people who point a laser at a helicopter think it's just a laugh and no harm is caused.

"But it can, in some cases, have life-changing consequences for the pilot, the crew, and if it's an air ambulance under threat, the patient in the back whose life they are trying to save."

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Mr Clark was hurt on Friday evening during a flight back to the Nostell air base.

YAA is now calling on local communities to raise awareness on the dangers of laser attacks. Anyone with information related to these incidents is asked to contact the police.

The charity's chairman, Mike Harrop, said crew shouldn't "fear flying" because someone "finds it amusing to shine lasers at aircraft".

"Regardless of whether YAA is being deliberately targeted or mistaken for another helicopter - it is wholly unacceptable for one of our crew members to suffer an injury due to someone else's reckless actions," he added.