Man badly injured in horror hammer attack
AMAN was taken to hospital with serious injuries after being ‘bludgeoned with a hammer’ in a terrifying attack in his flat.
Witnesses say the victim, thought to be in his 30s, was hit repeatedly with a claw hammer during the assault in Rochdale in the early hours of Tuesday.
Police have launched an investigation and forensics teams are this afternoon on the scene at the third floor flat in Birch View, Wardle.
A neighbour, who witnessed the attack, said: “Initially I thought it was a woman being attacked because I could hear a woman screaming. It was coming from an upstairs flat.
“I went to the door and banged on it and an Irish man and a woman came out. The man said “Somebody needs to go in there, because he’s going to kill him”.
“I went into the bedroom and could see a man lying on the bed and another man, also Irish, hitting his legs with a claw hammer.
“He turned round, he was enraged, I said to him “Leave him now, leave him”. He walked past me and out of the flat and I put the victim in the recovery position and called the police.
“The flat had been smashed up, the door had been kicked off its hinges and the furniture in the bedroom was smashed up.
“The victim had been bludgeoned, there’s no other way to describe it. He was in a really bad way. He’d been hit repeatedly to his head and legs. There was at least one hammer mark on his knee caps.
“I have seen a lot of stuff in my time, but this was shocking, it’s something you do not expect, but my concern was for the chap who had been bludgeoned. I made the step to go in the property and I wasn’t going to go until I had made sure I helped him.”
Police are now appealing for information about the attack.
A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said: “Shortly before 3.55am police were called to Birch View in Rochdale to reports of an assault at a property. Emergency services attended and a man was taken to hospital with serious arm injuries.”
Anyone with information is asked to call 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 quoting reference number 238 of July 11.