A PARAMEDIC today spoke of the moment he revived a man found slumped in Blackburn town centre - and his sadness when he later died in hospital.

Mike Brooke told how he and two other paramedics fought frantically to re-start Martin Bibby's heart outside the job centre in Cardwell Place, Blackburn town centre.

Mr Bibby, 47, of Stopes Brow, Lower Darwen, was admitted to Blackburn Royal Infirmary's intensive care unit at about 2am on Sunday, but died later in the day.

A post mortem examination found the cause of death to be head injuries.

A 33-year-old Blackburn man has since been charged with manslaughter.

He had been on a night out with work colleagues and had just left nearby Bar Ibiza in Mincing Lane. Minutes later a motorist passing by found him slumped unconscious on a grass mound outside the job centre.

Two police officers on patrol were first to the scene and gave Mr Bibby cardiopulmonary resuscitation for about 12 minutes until Mr Brooke, in the ambulance service's rapid response vehicle, arrived. He was on a more minor call in Shadsworth, but was ordered to come away from that as the police officers said that Mr Bibby had gone into cardiac arrest and his situation was critical.

Mr Brooke arrived on the scene minutes later and fought to free Mr Bibby's airway as the police officers continued to try to revive him.

He said: "That was a considerable task because of the condition he was in. The crew arrived several minutes later and I was able to get drugs into him, including adrenaline.

"We cleared his airway and got his heart beating again. It wasn't a very good output. We put him in the ambulance and he was critical throughout.

"In the ambulance we kept working on him and managed to get his heart beating properly. When he got to hospital his heart was beating, but his injuries proved too much.

"We did all we could. We did a good job and he had an A1 service from us but his injuries took his life."

Police originally said that they treated the man for 30 minutes, but that included the time the paramedics were present.