A group of police officers who fought a road side life and death battle to save a Great Yarmouth stabbing victim from bleeding to death are to receive top national life-saving honours.

When they arrived at the scene of the stabbing in Queen Street, the police officers – Sergeant Adrian Hales and PCs Constance Duffield, Andy Featherstone, Lewis Gilmore and Dean Harrison - were said to be confronted with a blood bath.

The victim was bleeding profusely from a deep slash to his face and had suffered massive blood loss.

PCs Harrison, Duffield and Featherstone using a first aid kit and towels obtained from a local resident attempted to stem the bleeding but without success.

The victim then fell unconscious and his airways became blocked with congealed blood.

At this stage, although an ambulance had been called Sergeant Hales decided that time was of the essence and instructed PC Gilmore to take the blood soaked man to hospital in a police car.

PC Harrison went with him and on the way continued to fight to try and limit blood loss.

At hospital the victim needed three blood transfusions and 13 stitches to the gash in his face.

Now the five police officers have all been awarded Royal Humane Society certificates of commendation for saving the man's life.

And in addition to the awards they have also received the personal praise of Dick Wilkinson, secretary of the Royal Humane Society.

Sgt Hales said: 'It's always a proud moment to be recognised for what is for us just another call on another day.

'It demonstrates how quickly, as a police officer, you can be presented with life or death situations and where minutes can make all the difference.

'In this case we all worked as a team to save a life and it is recognition enough to know that person is alive today because of what we did.

'The national award is a fantastic bonus.'

Speaking at the society's London headquarters as he announced the awards he said: 'This was very much a touch and go situation. The man was losing huge amounts of blood and could easily have died from blood loss.

'Thanks to the police action in their fight to stem his blood loss and in deciding there was not time to wait for an ambulance and instead to take him to hospital in a police car his life was saved. The police team work was brilliant. But for their actions the outcome of this incident could have been tragically different.'

No date has yet been fixed for presentation of the awards which have been made following a recommendation from Norfolk Police but it is expected to take place in the near future.

The roots of the Royal Humane Society stretch back more than two centuries. The Queen is its patron and its president is Princess Alexandra. It is the premier national body for honouring bravery in the saving of human life.