AN elderly man bled from a head wound in Wellington town centre while he waited for almost an-hour-and-a-half for an ambulance to arrive.

The man, who appeared to be in his 70s, is understood to have fallen and hit the the pavement in Fore Street on Thursday, May 30, at around 1.20pm.

Several members of the public and local business people were seen tending to the man, pressing a cloth against the wound and providing pillows to support his neck as he lay on the ground.

While the injured man might have expected a prompt response, he faced a wait as ambulance crews did not arrive on the scene until around 2.40pm.

The bleeding had been so severe that a nearby shopkeeper who had been tending to the man had to mop the pooled blood from the pavement after paramedics finally retrieved him from the floor and brought him inside an ambulance.

A witness to the incident said the man had either tripped or fallen, before suffering a “serious gash” to his head when he collided with the pavement.

A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) said in a brief statement: “We were called at 1:23pm on Thursday, May 30, to an incident in Wellington. We sent one double-crewed land ambulance to the scene and conveyed one patient by land ambulance to Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton.

“We would like to wish the patient well."