TWO Good Samaritans today told of how they desperately fought to keep alive an elderly man who fell and gashed his head in a seafront street.

Today the identify of the man – who later died in hospital – remains a mystery, and police are appealing for help to find out who he is so they can trace his relatives.

Amber Welsh and Joseph Coldron were visiting Felixstowe for a celebration when their evening was turned upside down as they spotted the man crumple on the pavement and bang his head on a wall in Undercliff Road West.

They turned their car around and rushed back to see if they could help – with Mr Coldron, 23, using his new first aid training to give the man CPR for ten minutes until a paramedic arrived.

“When we reached the man he was unconscious and barely breathing. The we heard him sort of give a heavy last breath and he stopped breathing altogether, and he had no pulse,” said Ms Welsh, 20, of Great Clacton.

“I phoned the ambulance service and Joe started doing CPR.

“I just think it’s awful and so sad that no-one knows who the man was and that his family doesn’t know what happened to him. I would never want that to happen to me.”

The couple were visiting Mr Coldron’s mum in the town and celebrating finding their dream home. He used to work at the Old Millars in Felixstowe, and now works for Dura Composites, Clacton, where he completed his first aid training two months ago.

Police said the only item in the man’s possession was a leather wallet containing three keys – and no form of identification and no reference to where he came from.

“Officers have made extensive enquiries at local homes and blocks of flats in the area to see if anyone knows who he is but, so far, this has been unsuccessful,” said a spokeswoman.

The man is described as white, likely to be aged over 70, around 5ft 8ins to 5ft 9ins tall, of thin build, with grey receding hair.

He was wearing a three-quarter length rain mac in a creamy-khaki colour, a Tweed suit jacket, a coral/pink coloured jumper, blue corduroy trousers, black leather gloves and brown suede lace-up shoes. He also has a faded tattoo on his forearm that appears to be a snake wrapped around a dagger.

? Anyone who may have information about his identity is asked to contact the duty sergeant at Felixstowe police station on 101.