A MAN suffered a serious head injury which led to his death when he fell in a Blackburn car park, an inquest was told.

Retired weaver Mohammed Khan, 69, died in Blackburn Royal Infirmary following the accident in the car park of a doctor's surgery off Troy Street, Blackburn.

Paramedic Christopher Higson told the inquest he and a colleague, Paul Jackson, had been called to the scene of the accident.

They were told Mr Khan had been walking across the car park and fallen backwards, which led them to think he had suffered a blackout of some kind.

He said Mr Khan, was conscious but very agitated. He was speaking in a foreign language so the ambulancemen could not tell if he was confused. Mr Khan's son, Tariq Mahmood Khan, said he and his father had gone to separate mosques. When Tariq returned to the family home in Calder Street, Blackburn, he was told his father had fallen.

He dialled 999 and went to be with his father.

He said: "He was very confused. He could speak English but was talking only in Punjabi."

Mr Khan was taken to hospital but his condition deteriorated and he died the next day.

A post mortem examination carried out by pathologist Dr William Lawler showed that Mr Khan's fall could have been preceded by the blood supply to the brain or heart being cut off. He said the cause of death was the head injury.

Coroner Andre Rebello recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.