DETECTIVES are due to interview a man left in a pool of blood after an attack in an alleyway last Saturday..

Colin Ingham, 38, needed 17 stitches and underwent surgery in Blackburn Royal Infirmary to rebuild his face after an attack near the Gretna Green pub in Coal Clough Lane.

He was set upon while walking through a ginnel off Cog Lane on his way home. Police do not know if an object was used in the attack.

The landlady of the Gretna Green, Lorraine Hutchinson said she had been told there had been a fight out outside the pub at about 10.30, but when she went to look there was no-one there.

She claims that police officers later made a search of the pub looking for anyone who had blood on them. It is not though that Mr Ingham is a regular at the Gretna Green.

The ginnel was sealed off the alleyway between Cog Lane and Aidrie Crescent while they investigated the incident. His partner, Pat Rickwood, spent all day Sunday at his bedside in hospital and said he was struggling to speak and explain what happened because he was in so much pain.

Mr Ingham, an unemployed scaffolder of Greenock Close, Burnley was released from hospital on Thursday and officers from Burnley CID are hoping to interview him early next week.

He had been drinking and playing pool in the Gretna Green since the afternoon and left at 11pm. He was found by a woman walking her dog.

A man was arrested in connection with the attack and released on police bail.

Police are still appealing for any witnesses to come forward as they believe that there were people in the vicinity of the Gretna Green at the time of the assault.