Man stabbed at fruit farm

Drama unfolded at a fruit farm near Stafford when an immigrant worker was stabbed by another man at the site.

The man suffered chest injuries and was airlifted to hospital after the incident at Billington Farm, off the A518.

Police sealed off the site and surrounding roads following the attack at about 11.15am yesterday.

Locals spoke of their shock on hearing news of the drama. Malcolm Cooper, the landlord of the Red Lion in Derrington, said he had seen police officers searching the disused railway line near the pub and noticed the police helicopter overhead.

The incident came just days after two women were stabbed in Lichfield in an apparently random attack.

But Detective Inspector Paul Bentley, of Staffordshire Police, stressed that knife crime in the area was rare. “However, while it’s important to remember that knife crime is a problem associated with larger metropolitan areas, Staffordshire Police is not complacent,” he said.

“Incidents in our county are robustly investigated and we are determined to bring offenders to justice.”