A former paramedic and publican has described the moments he rushed to help a man, who later died after being stabbed.

David Riddell, 53, spoke of his role in the tragedy, as police confirmed what was being treated as a serious assault is now a murder inquiry.

The 34-year-old man had been fighting for his life at Carlisle's Cumberland Infirmary since the incident, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, but a spokesman for Cumbria Police confirmed he had died yesterday evening.

Mr Riddell was in the Maryport Labour Club in the early hours of Tuesday morning, when a woman rushed in screaming: “Oh my God! He’s been stabbed.”

Mr Riddell, who until recently, ran the Middle Tap pub in Maryport, spent 10 years as a paramedic with the Scottish Ambulance Service.

“I ran out and saw a man lying on his back on the pavement,” he recalled. “He had blood on his face.”

Mr Riddell said he immediately applied pressure with his hands to wounds in the man's neck, in a bid to stop the bleeding.

“Then someone from the Labour Club brought me out some tea towels and I held them over the wound until the police arrived.”

He then liaised with a police officer to get oxygen and a mask and sat with the man, applying oxygen, until the ambulance arrived and he could help him onto the stretcher.

He admitted it had been a shocking experience.

“I attended many emergencies in my time with the paramedics in Scotland," Mr Ridell recalled, "but this is the worst stabbing I’ve seen.”

The man, who is from Maryport, has not been named.

A 32-year-old man arrested as part of the investigation was last night being questioned on suspicion of murder.

Police originally said he was from Carlisle, but have confirmed he moved to Maryport recently.

Several businesses were closed for the day on Tuesday as Senhouse Street, the main shopping area, was cordoned off from High Street to Crosby Street for nearly 24 hours, as was an area at the Wave on Irish Street.