FOUR teenagers who helped a blood-covered man while others looked on have been praised for their actions.

Jordan Montgomery, Liam Chamberlain and twins David and James Hocking-Darby, all 15, from Ashdown Technology College, went to the aid of the man in his 30s at the view point off Constitution Hill Road in Poole shortly after 11am on Saturday.

There was so much blood that at first they thought he was wearing a red baseball cap.

“It was shocking,” said Jordan. “I had my hands on my head.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he added.

David said: “At first we were shocked, but we didn’t want to just stand there.”

With basic first aid training they advised him to use his jacket to stem the bleeding, and tried to assess his injuries, before off-duty nurse Diane Allard from Lower Parkstone arrived.

“My first reaction was it looked like they attacked him, but I quickly realised they were trying to help him,” she told the Echo.

Diane, 39, fetched her first aid kit and treated the man, who was bleeding heavily from a head wound and had cuts to his hands and arms and bruising. The lads phoned an ambulance, flagged it down, then stayed on to give information to the police.

“I couldn’t have done it without them,” added Diane. “They were keeping him calm, talking to him, telling him it was going to be okay.

She added: “There were people there before me who weren’t helping, just watching, but they stepped in. They were clearly quite shocked, but still did the right thing.”

PC Michael Wood, a response officer from Poole, observed: “The main thing is that, when lots of people don’t like to get involved, or just walk on by – they did something.”

James said: “He was in such a bad state – you can’t leave someone like that.”

Liam added: “We didn’t know what happened to the man. We just hope he’s all right.”

A spokesman for the ambulance service said the teenagers “undoubtedly made a positive difference” and “should be very proud of their actions”.

Police are investigating the incident. Anyone with information should call them on 01202 222 222.

The injured man was taken to Poole Hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries.