A MAN is in a coma after a New Year’s Day serious assault in a residential street.

Damien Jackson, 28, of Clyde Street, Shadsworth, had been celebrating when he was involved in an altercation outside his home around 4am on January 1.

Police said there was an argument and Mr Jackson went back in his home but then went straight out the back, unknown to his mum and siblings, and into an alleyway.

There was a second confrontation and Mr Jackson again tried to run off.

But police said Mr Jackson was left prone in the street with a small pool of blood by his head.

Local residents were alerted by a man knocking on the window and asking them to call an ambulance.

Mr Jackson was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital with a serious head injury and transferred to Royal Preston Hospital.

Police yesterday said he was in a medically induced coma to allow the swelling on his brain to ease. He was described as ‘stable’.

His mother was by his bedside as he spent a third night in hospital.

DS Mark Saunders said detectives are now trying to piece together the events that led up to the incident.

He appealed for witneses to the ‘serious assault’ to come forward.

Three men aged 43, 20, and 18, all from the Blackburn area, have been arrested on suspicion of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

They have been bailed pending further inquiries.