A RISHTON man today spoke of how he is "lucky to be alive" after suffering stab wounds in an alleged attack while out celebrating his birthday.

Oliver Thompson lost five pints of blood and had to have more than 50 stitches in two stab wounds after the incident. He said one wound severed an artery, missing his jugular vein by an inch.

Mr Thompson, who works as a quality controller at Slingers meat packaging factory, Great Harwood, said he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He was celebrating his 22nd birthday with three friends when the incident took place in St Cecilia Street, Great Harwood, in the early hours of Sunday.

He said: "I felt a sharp pain in my head. The next thing, blood started gushing everywhere. I felt it on my face and running across my skin. I ran into my mate's house and shut the door."

Once inside Mr Thompson checked his wound, which was bleeding profusely. "All the blood started spurting out over my mate's face and down my top and everywhere. I didn't realise I had been stabbed."

Mr Thompson was taken to Blackburn Infirmary and had to have a general anaesthetic so his wound could be treated.

"One wound went through my temple and cut through an artery and a nerve. I lost five pints of blood. It took four hours to stem the bleeding."

Mr Thompson said the incident had left him feeling vulnerable and had jeopardised his chances of a career in the RAF, for which he should have been undergoing tests this week.

"All I could hear was people asking if I was breathing or dead. I can't hear out of my left ear and they say I could lose the feeling in the left side of my face. I was planning to go in the RAF but, if the eardrum is gone, that's that. I was definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm lucky to be alive."

Chris Cadman, 30, of Heywood Street, Great Harwood, was with Mr Thompson. She said: "It was horrible."