Appeal over street attack

Police in Liverpool have made a fresh appeal for information after a man was left critically ill in what they say was an "unprovoked" attack.

Stephen Ballan, 43, from Kirkdale, Liverpool, was kicked in the head and knocked unconscious by a man as he walked home from the pub on Monday night.

Members of the public and a taxi driver helped Mr Ballan after the attack at the junction of Leeds Street and Vauxhall Road.

He was taken to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital where he was diagnosed with a brain haemorrhage.

Local accent

Mr Ballan has since undergone surgery at the Walton Neuro Centre and is critically ill.

Merseyside Police say there appears to be no motive for the attack.

They are keen to trace a man and woman Mr Ballan was seen having an altercation with at the Vauxhall Vaults pub.

The man was white, 6ft tall, slim, clean-shaven with cropped hair and appeared to have a broken nose.

He spoke with a local accent and was wearing a blue sweatshirt.

The woman was white, between 34 and 40, stocky with black shoulder-length hair. She was wearing a red top with black trousers.

Officers also want to speak to anyone who was in the Vauxhall Vaults on Monday night.