A retailer was left for dead after he was attacked while closing up his store.

David Basrai of Oxclose Shop in Washington, Tyne & Wear, was locking up on November 22 when two men attacked him. They failed to steal anything from the shop, but left him with a fractured skull and broken jaw.

David’s wife Karen said that he could have died during the attack. “He was left unconscious and covered in blood,” she said. “He was left to die - it could have been a murder scene.”

The shop has since reopened and Karen has said that customers have rallied round.

Meanwhile, a shopworker has been murdered at a newsagents in Knowsley. The unnamed Sri Lankan man had been working at Stanley News and Wine in Kingsway, Huyton, for several months.

He was stabbed in the neck after a man entered the store late on November 29. He was found in the store and taken to Whiston Hospital, where he later died of his injuries.