SHOCKED staff told last night of how they went to the aid of a man who staggered into their town centre shop with a deep stab wound to his back.The man, 30, is thought to have been stabbed while he stood in a busy Bury St Edmunds street outside a fast food restaurant.

SHOCKED staff told last night of how they went to the aid of a man who staggered into their town centre shop with a deep stab wound to his back.

The man, 30, is thought to have been stabbed while he stood in a busy Bury St Edmunds street outside a fast food restaurant.

Police and ambulance staff were swiftly on the scene and the man was taken to West Suffolk Hospital with serious injuries.

Witnesses said initially the man believed he had been kicked in the back but assistant store manager at Game, in the Cornhill, Stuart Malone decided the man had to be seen by doctors.

“At first he seemed like an obnoxious customer barging his way to the front of the queue,” said Mr Malone, 26. “He said it felt like he'd been kicked in the back.

“I noticed some blood so I lifted up his shirt and I saw a nasty wound. It was quite deep but I told him it wasn't bad and reassured him, I then got a towel and applied pressure to the wound until the ambulance arrived.”

Camilla Davies-Husband, a sales assistant at the shop, said: “I am quite shocked it happened in the middle of the day, when there are children about.

“The store manager just held him with a towel and he was saying 'stay with me, stay with me' as the blood pooled on his jeans.

“I found it very upsetting when the man phoned his wife. He was angry one moment and then he just broke down. He told her and then I think it sunk in and he just started to cry.”

Kim Hall, a senior sales assistant, said: “The whole thing was horrible - the man seemed pretty messed up.

“There wasn't masses of blood but there was enough to be serious. I think he was in shock and he hadn't realised what had happened.

“I am shocked it happened in this town - you just don't expect it. I think three girls saw what had happened, I think there was a fight outside Burger King.”

A police spokesman confirmed police received a call to the incident around 2.30pm in the Cornhill and a 38 year-old man from Bury had been arrested on suspicion of wounding with intent.

He said the 30-year-old man was in the West Suffolk Hospital with a puncture wound to the right hand side of his back.