Blackburn McDonald's cordoned off as man taken to hospital

At around 7am today (Tuesday, February 13), emergency services attended and police taped off the entrance to the fast food restaurant in King William Street.

A man was taken to hospital after being found unresponsive in the restaurant's emergency exit by McDonald's staff.

It is thought the man was sleeping in the doorway of the exit along with another man. 

A police vehicle remains in attendance at the scene but the McDonald's restaurant is still open to customers.

The police cordon outside McDonald's in King William Street (Image: NQ Staff)

A spokesperson for Lancashire Police said: "We were called to King William Street, Blackburn, at 7.15am today (February 13) to reports a man in his 30s had been found unresponsive outside McDonalds.

"He has been taken to hospital where he remains in a critical condition.

"We are looking into the circumstances which led to the man becoming unresponsive, however we do not believe he has been assaulted."

Live updates: Police cordon outside McDonald's in Blackburn town centre

Staff working at the fast food restaurant arrived for work early this morning and found the man lying in the doorway of the emergency exit.

Manager of the McDonald's, Shoaib Khalifa, said he saw the man's friend trying to rouse him, but he was not responding.

Mr Khalifa, a first aider, went to see if he could assist and, after taking the man's pulse and checking if he was breathing, discovered he was unresponsive.

Mr Khalifa said: "I phoned for the ambulance straight away, and then ran back outside as fast as I could and commenced CPR.

"We have an AED (defibrillator) in the back, so I asked someone to bring it out for me, and I was about to get the defib out and use it but the ambulance service arrived.

"They were there really quickly, in about two minutes; they were fantastic actually, I didn't expect them to be there so fast.

"They told me to carry on with CPR, which I did, until they took over.

"The man was then taken to hospital."

The police cordon outside McDonald's in King William Street (Image: NQ Staff)

Mr Khalifa, who has worked at the Blackburn McDonald's for 11 years, said he was in shock at what happened as he knows and recognises a lot of the homeless people sleeping in and around Blackburn town centre.

He continued: "I'm ok, it was a shock and I felt a bit dizzy as everything happened so fast. I just hope the man is ok.

"I see the homeless people all the time and it's a shame, you know, some of them really don't want to be homeless.

"I have been involved in an incident before, a few years ago, where we thought a homeless man was dead, but as soon as we started to try and wake him up, he just came alive.

"Working here, we shouldn't really have to be dealing with things like this, I'm a qualified first aider but my concern was that the council is supposed to be monitoring the homeless and checking up on them, especially the ones in the town centre.

"But I haven't seen a council officer checking on them in the 11 years I've worked here - so where have they been this morning?"

Executive member for public health at Blackburn with Darwen Council, Cllr Damian Talbot said: "We are all concerned for this person's welfare and hope that people will understand and be aware that the council does work as much as possible with rough sleepers.

"We have the homeless pods in Shadsworth, which we have implemented over three winters now and we have support workers out and about talking to rough sleepers in the town centre.

"We try to reach the ones who are sleeping rough and we do our best but it's concerning.

"The council has a rough sleeping team but the number of rough sleepers in town at the moment is at relatively low levels compared to previous years and compared with other towns.

"The staff we have work all kinds of hours and they pretty much know the rough sleepers in Blackburn town centre by name.

"We try and get them accommodation but, if they choose not to be in accommodation, we can't force them.

The police cordon outside McDonald's in King William Street (Image: NQ Staff)

"The only time police had powers to remove rough sleepers from the town centre was during the Covid pandemic.

"And rough sleeping is very different to begging - it's not illegal. 

"And unfortunately we don't have the powers to force anyone into accommodation.

"The work is there and it is being done by our support staff, but it's impossible for officers to be with rough sleepers all the time.

"If one person tells them, 'I'm ok thanks, I don't need help', then we have to take that at face value.

"We have managed to get support with accommodation for a lot of Blackburn's homeless but sometimes they can't manage themselves in independent accommodation and end up back on the street. 

"And when that's the case, there's not much else we can do unfortunately.

"But we do help, the council got extra funding for the pods in Shadsworth - we are one of the only local authorities in the country to have a provision like that.

"It's not a statutory requirement that we provide pods but it's an example of good practice on the council's part. 

"I personally don't want to see anyone on the streets in the cold winter months in Blackburn.

"And I hope there's a positive outcome in this situation, I really do.

"If this person has family members we are concerned for their family at this time too."

Councillor Zamir Khan, Blackburn central ward councillor said: "This is very sad news. Every life is important and every life matters."

Anyone with information can contact the police on 101, quoting log 160 of February 13.