A MAN was taken to hospital in a critical condition after suffering a cardiac arrest. 

The East of England Ambulance Service was called at 10.12am today to Short Wyre Street in Colchester.

They had received reports of a man who had collapsed and was not breathing.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said: "Two rapid response vehicles, an ambulance officer, ambulance crew and East Anglian Air Ambulance were dispatched.

"They treated a man, believed to be in his 60s, who was in cardiac arrest.

"Following treatment at the scene, he was resuscitated and airlifted to Basildon and Thurrock Hospital in a critical condition."