A beggar beaten within an inch of his life was left lying in a pool of blood for hours before anyone came to his aid.

The street drinker, who is in his 50s, was found lying on the pavement in Chapel Road, Worthing, with serious head injuries on Monday night.

Police believe he was left fighting for his life in the street for several hours before anyone stopped to help him.

The Worthing man had been begging for cash outside the Blockbuster video shop when two men beat him up after they objected to being asked for change.

After several hours eventually a passing member of the public took pity on the bleeding tramp and called an ambulance.

When paramedics arrived they feared the man had been assaulted and called the police.

Sergeant Ian Kerr, of Sussex Police, said: “He was lying on the pavement with serious head injuries.

“His head was covered in blood.

“The male was a local street drinker who was begging for some cash as people walked by.

“It is believed he remained at the scene for at least two hours before anyone came to his assistance.

”Police are desperately appealing for people who may have seen the man lying in the street or who saw the attack taking place.

The site, on the edge of Worthing’s busy centre, is next to the main road into the heart of the town.

Sgt Kerr added: “We think he was attacked at around 10pm, so there would probably have been people around.

”The attack is the latest in a string of assaults on rough sleepers.

In December, unemployed Stuart Slade, 35, was stabbed repeatedly and left to bleed to death in Hampton Place, off Western Road, in Brighton.

Homeless Karen and Richard Smith, who lived in a tent for years, told The Argus last year they were regularly threatened by gangs as they slept rough in a central Brighton graveyard.

And in July 2007 Oliver Skeggs and two friends smashed a tramp’s skull with a wheelbrace.

Skeggs, 18, and accomplices Samuel Hutton, 20, and Louis Stanley, 19, attacked the man as he slept carried and filmed the assault on a mobile phone.