A SHOCKED Chorley shopkeeper was forced to clean up pools of blood on her doorstep after an apparent suicide attempt.

Angela Savigar, owner of A1 Pets in Eaves Lane, was sickened when she arrived at work to find two blood soaked towels, a beer can full of blood and her shop step and frontage smeared with blood.

She said she was stunned to find neither police officers nor council officials had made an attempt to clean up the mess.

Angela said: "I received a phone call from my assistant who had arrived at the shop early and found the frontage in a real state, she was very distressed.

"It's an awful thing to happen and we all hope he's okay."

The trader, who could not even open her business because of the mess on Thursday morning, said: "I was shocked at what I saw when I arrived, but was even more surprised that it had just been left like that by the police."

"Children are walking past here all the time and could have touched the blood. It had been there so long that it had started to clot.

"I couldn't open the shop because customers would not have wanted to walk through that mess."

It is believed a man cut his wrists at Highfield Road Primary School before making his way along Eaves Lane to the pet shop.

A police spokesman said: "The incident occurred at around 10.30pm on Wednesday and the man involved was taken to Chorley Hospital by ambulance.

"There was a dialogue between police and the council over who should clean up the blood and the issue was subsequently resolved with the council agreeing to attend the scene."

When Angela contacted the council she said she was told she would have to clean it herself because it was on private property and not on a public highway.

"I had to get a bucket of bleach and rubber gloves on and cleaned it up myself with a long handled brush.

"I could not believe I had to do it."

Council officials eventually turned up at around 10am after repeated calls, but by then the mess was almost gone.

"They came and mopped up the last little bit and one of the cleaners was retching as he was doing it. It was absolutely disgusting."

Chorley Borough Council confirmed an officer had spoken to A1 Pets but they had been referred to the highways department instead of environmental services.

John Lechmere, the council's head of environmental services, said he would ensure this could not happen again.

"If there is anywhere in the public domain which is contaminated with blood, or blood products, then people should ring environmental services as a matter of urgency and we will send someone to clean it immediately," he said.