Fluidisation is frequently accompanied by unwanted attrition of the bed material. This paper focuses on the mechanical aspects of fines creation by attrition in fluidised beds supported by multi-orifice distributor plates. The attrition rates of low-density porous glass particles were measured; these particles show abrasive wear behaviour rather than breakage. Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) was used to follow particle motion in three dimensions within the fluidised bed. For a single orifice distributor with background fluidisation, the attrition rate increased exponentially with increasing orifice gas velocity. For a multi-orifice distributor, however, attrition rates were roughly proportional to excess gas velocity, except near to a critical ratio of particle to orifice diameter; as this ratio approached 2, attrition was observed to increase by an order of magnitude. A method is proposed for estimating attrition rates from a combination of small-scale experimental results and theoretical calculations of distributor jet entrainment rates.