A MAN on a night out in a Weston pub dropped everything and rushed outside to save the life of a man who had been stabbed in the street.

Mark Bradshaw used his first aid experience to staunch the leg wound as the victim, who lost consciousness for a period, lay on the ground outside the Black Cat in High Street.

Mark spent around 30 minutes working on the man, who is in his 40s, before paramedics arrived and the man was taken to hospital.

When he arrived on the scene, Mark saw two men doing first aid on the victim, with one of them using a tourniquet, which slowed the bleeding, but did not stop it.

He said: "There were other people around.

"I shouted I wanted belts and sticks...to try and make a more effective tourniquet, which I did, but this also snapped.

"I was then handed a dog lead, which I used as a tourniquet. The wound was still bleeding so this was not effective.

"At this stage the male was still conscious, lying on his back and he was complaining the first aid I was doing was hurting him.

"Because the tourniquet was not working, I shouted for a knife. This was for his trousers to be cut off so the wound could be exposed. The first knife did not work, so someone got another one which allowed the trouser leg to be cut off exposing the wound."

Mark then saw the gaping wound along with muscle and blood vessels on the other man's thigh.

He lay on the ground and put two fingers inside the wound to try to stop the bleeding.

"By having my fingers in the wound, it stopped the pulsing bleeding straightaway, there was just bleeding from capillaries," added Mark. "I stayed in this position keeping my fingers in the wound.

"During this time, the male was trying to lash out at me as this would have been painful to him, so I asked two people to stop him doing this.

"I stayed in that position until police arrived. I asked police for a tourniquet, but unfortunately, they did not have this equipment.

"The male went unconscious for a couple of minutes, which was very worrying due to the blood loss he had suffered.

"An ambulance then arrived. I kept the pressure inside the wound until paramedics had applied an effective tourniquet which stopped the bleeding."

Mark has held continuous first aid qualifications and experience for about 40 years. He has a QNUK Level Three Award for First Responders and the Wilderness and Remote Location Responder which covers keeping people alive in remote locations while waiting for help to arrive. He said: "This gave me the confidence to carry out the first aid that I did."

An Avon and Somerset Police spokesperson said a 35-year-old man arrested on suspicion of wounding with intent and a 40-year-old man arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender have since been released on bail, while enquiries are ongoing.