EMERGENCY services were called to a town after a man was left with a head injury following an attack with a garden gnome.

Richard Cornwell

EMERGENCY services were called to a town after a man was left with a head injury following an attack with a garden gnome.

The bizarre incident happened in Philip Avenue, Felixstowe, when two men had a fight and one hit the other over the head with the garden ornament.

An ambulance crew was called to the Coronation estate at about 1.35am on Saturday to attend to the 26-year-old injured man.

However, when police officers turned up a few minutes later to investigate the reported attack by a man armed with a garden gnome, the victim refused to give his name or address and said he did not want to take the matter further.

“All he would say was that it was six of one and half a dozen of the other,” said a police spokeswoman.

“There was little further the officers could do and so they left.”

The man was treated by the paramedics and then taken to Ipswich Hospital for further checks.

It is believed the pair probably live in the area - Philip Avenue is a cut-through from the port area to the estates on the west of the town, and also to and from the seafront from paths leading to the bottom of Coronation Drive - but it is not known whether the attacker had the gnome with him already or took it from a garden nearby.

Residents of Philip Avenue said they were unaware of the incident and had not seen the emergency services attending in the early hours.

At two homes where gnomes were part of the front garden display, both householders said their ornaments did not appear to have been moved or broken.