Detectives investigating an attempted murder are hunting for two men seen walking towards the street where a man was later found unconscious in a pool of blood.

Former paratrooper Michael Reynolds, 49, was still unconscious in a London hospital today after he was left for dead in the early hours of Monday morning.

Detective Superintendent Steve Scott said the police would be focusing on finding the two men seen walking along the seafront towards Bedford Row, Worthing, where Mr Reynolds was found by a woman friend.

Mr Scott said Mr Reynolds managed to ring the doorbell on his friends' flat but had collapsed by the time one of them answered the door.

Police held a briefing outside the Blue Ocean Fish Bar in South Street, where Mr Reynolds had been buying fish and chips for himself and his friends.

Mr Scott said the victim became embroiled in an argument with a group of four men and was asked to "step outside'" the fish and chip shop.

He said: "We know there was a black man and three white men.

"We also know a witness saw two white men matching the description of two of the men walking briskly in the direction of Bedford Row.

"Can they have been following the victim? It is only 450 yards to Bedford Row."

Mr Scott said Mr Reynolds, of Friars Walk, Worthing, was wearing a smart blazer with a Parachute Regiment badge, collar and tie.

The first man in the group is described as white, with short dark hair which had been shaved and was growing back. He was said to be about 5ft 9in, of stocky build, wearing blue jeans and a polo shirt.

The second man was black, of average build, with a shaven head and also wearing a polo shirt.

The third was white with light brown hair and a slim build, and the only detail on the fourth man is that he was white.

Mr Reynolds had been at the Water Front pub in Marine Parade between 8pm and 10pm and a disco at the Windsor Hotel between 12.30am and 1am.

Police hope to speak to anyone who saw him on the night of the attack or anyone who knows him. They would particularly like to speak to a couple and an elderly man who were in the fish bar when the fight broke out.