A MURDER-style inquiry was launched after a vicar found pools of blood and a macabre handprint around the grounds of his church.

Armed police and scenes of crime officers were called to the scene and it was sealed off for six hours yesterday as a fingertip search was carried out. Aerial photographs were also taken of the site to plot trails of blood and forensic evidence was taken from the area amid fears somebody had been stabbed.

The 'victim', David Reed, 58, was later found to have been admitted to Blackburn Royal Infirmary in the early hours with a serious head injury.

But his family were today still trying to piece together the events which led to him returning home from a family wedding covered in his own blood, despite police saying they believed he had fallen.

Det Sgt Paul Withers, of Blackburn CID, said: "There was quite a lot of blood so we needed to treat it seriously and locate the person who had lost the blood.

"There was a good chance that there would be a body nearby but fortunately that body turned out to be in hospital.

"We need to treat any matter like that seriously but are happy that he fell on his way home."

The Rev Terry Ensor, of St James Vicarage, Cromer Place, Blackburn, discovered the first pool of blood on the vicarage doorstep when he left for a 9am service.

As he walked to the church he found bloody handprints on the side of the building, and a large pool of blood in a corner.

He said: "I don't know what the cause was but it was as if somebody had been stabbed -- I have never seen so much blood. I thought I heard somebody at the door about 2.30am but fell back asleep. He must have been in a terrible state." Initial contact with local hospitals failed to reveal anyone who could have been linked to the grisly find but it was only when David came round that medical staff realised he may have been involved.

David, of Columbia Way, had set off to walk home after the celebration at the Foundry Arms, Birley Street, just before last orders on Saturday.

When he arrived home he was confused and covered with blood. His son, David, 28, said: "I heard some banging outside and when I went to the door I didn't see the blood at first but when I put the light on I saw that he was covered in it.

"It was all over his face and I started panicking -- it looked like he'd been stabbed.

"I called for an ambulance and they cleaned him up but he needed five staples in a head wound to seal it up."

His wife Mary, 56, said: "He is still very confused and seems to have some sort of amnesia -- possibly as a result of concussion from the fall.

"I can not understand how this happened and thought that somebody had attacked him. It scares me as we might never piece it together but I keep going through it trying to make sense of it.

"He has a grazed knee and forehead as well as the head wound which are consistent with a fall but I am not sure.

"He remembers being at the church and being laid down but nothing else."

Mr Reed was described as being in a satisfactory condition but he will be kept in for observation.

Today Mr Reed's family, including his son Stephen, were returning to visit him in hospital -- his third son Chris and grandchildren Mike and Corrina in Germany had also been told what happened.