Police are investigating after a man collapsed and died in his garden.

Residents told how they rushed to help a man in his 50s who had collapsed in his garden and was bleeding and struggling to breathe.

Ambulance paramedics and police were called at 1pm yesterday to the terrace house in West End Road, Golcar.

The man was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.

The remote street – which is accessed down a steep cobbled bank – was sealed off for most of yesterday afternoon as police investigations got under way.

But it is understood there were no suspicious circumstances.

One neighbour told how she came home at lunch time to find the usually quiet street flooded with police and ambulances and the street cordoned off.

Another resident told how her partner was one of two men called to help.

She said: “It’s so sad. My partner went to help but when he got there the man was at the bottom of the steps and there was blood everywhere.

“It’s such a shock. I think he was only in his 50s.”

She said she believed the man, who suffered from a lung condition, may have been coming outside to call for help when he tripped on steep stone steps leading from his garden to the road.

Another neighbour who knew the deceased was too shocked to talk to the Examiner and passed on his condolences to the man’s next of kin.

An investigation will be carried out by police to establish exactly what happened.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman confirmed they were investigating and inquiries are ongoing.