A VICIOUS brawl between two middle aged men ended with the pair sustaining a string of serious injuries including a fractured skull, eye socket and broken ribs.

The pair aged 62 and 54 had been fighting in the street and later within a property in Greenock’s Bawhirley Road on Tuesday night.

Those who went to help one of the men said it took the ambulance almost 40 minutes to get there.

Former nurse Sandra McCorkell went to the aid of the older man, who she said was sitting propped up against a hedge on Belville Avenue.

The 51-year-old told the Tele: “I got there about 7.30pm — I thought he had fallen at first but then I thought he had been stabbed.

“His whole face was a mass of blood and there were wounds on his face. 

“There was blood pouring out of his eyes and nose and the skin was flapping off his eyebrow.

“I kept applying pressure to his wounds to make sure he was conscious.

“Then he seemed to lose consciousness.

“He was slumped over, then I put him into the recovery position.

“There were about six of us, including two first aiders.

“He tried to get up a couple of times and I thought: ‘he’s not going to make it’.

“I think he could have died if someone hadn’t found him, due to all the blood loss and the fact that because it was pouring with rain he could have got hypothermia.”

Sandra said a man who was first on the scene stopped in his car and called an ambulance when he saw what was going on.

She said: “It took 40 minutes before the ambulance arrived.

“The man who called was raging that it took so long.”

The Scottish Ambulance Service has confirmed it received a call at 7.56pm and paramedics did not arrive until 8.34pm.

A spokesperson said: “The patient’s injuries were not considered to be immediately life-threatening.

“We had multiple crews in the Greenock area dealing with high demand.

“We dispatched the nearest possible crew which arrived at 2034 hours.

“A male patient in his 50s was taken to Inverclyde Royal Hospital in a stable condition.”

When police arrived on the scene they cordoned off the area with tape as potential witnesses were interviewed.

Detective Sergeant Neil Martin of Greenock CID said: “It appears there has been a disturbance outside the locus which continued within a flat at 5 Bawhirley Road.

“Both men were conveyed to Inverclyde Royal Hospital — one at 8.30pm and the other a few hours later.

“Both men remain within the hospital for observation.”

It’s understood that the 62-year-old man sustained a fractured eye socket and a possible fractured skull, while the younger man has lacerations to the left side of his head, his forehead and fractured ribs.

DS Martin said: “We are looking at CCTV footage in the area and at the shops in order to establish a timeline. Enquiries are ongoing into this incident.

“It is a busy area at that time of the evening and someone may have seen two men involved in an altercation either between themselves or another party.

“Anyone with information regarding the incident should contact Greenock CID on the 101 number.”