A MAN was left fighting for his life after being stabbed just yards from Colchester police station.

The victim, who is in his 20s, was attacked in West Street at 11.30pm on Sunday.

Detectives are searching for the attacker and are treating the incident as attempted murder.

The victim was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries, but is now considered to be in a stable but critical condition.

Police shut the road - which is only seconds away from the police station in Southway - for much of Monday while investigations continued.

A neighbour said he had no idea what had happened until the morning.

“I was stunned when I saw all the forensics teams,” he said.

“It is strange because it is quite a nice area, there are nice houses but there are certainly people taking drugs.

“It is worrying if they haven’t arrested anyone - they obviously knew the area if they ran towards the underpass.”

A former soldier who lives in the area said he feared going out at night.

“Colchester is getting worse and worse,” he said.

“After I came back from Afghanistan, I was placed here by the MoD and moved away but came back because I liked it so much.

“But now it worries me. If I was out at night and saw three men I would move out of the way because I am scared what they will do to me.

“I am more scared here than I was in Afghanistan which I know sounds strange but at least there I had people backing me up.

“People are worried about talking to the police because they worry what people will do to them. I’ve called them when I have seen things happening two or three times.”

The attacker is described as black, in his 20s, around 5ft 10ins tall, of a medium build and was wearing a black tracksuit. He was spotted running off towards the Southway underpass.

A spokesman for Essex Police said: “If you were in the area around this time and either witnessed the incident or saw or heard anything suspicious, please call the North Major Investigation Team on 101 quoting crime reference number 42/144257/19.

You can also email scd.appeals.essex@essex.pnn.police.uk. or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”