A pensioner who suffered a heart attack outside Barking Tube station owes his life to three quick-thinking police officers.

The 70-year-old collapsed in the street on Saturday at around 4pm and stopped breathing.

A member of the public alerted the front office of Barking police station and Pc Leanne Crowdy, along with PCSOs Terry Curry and Gary Stow of the Abbey Ward Safer Neighbourhoods Team, ran to the scene.

They began to administer first aid, working together to perform CPR on the man, who was not responsive or breathing.

PCSO Curry ran into a nearby supermarket and got a defibrillator while PC Crowdy and PCSO Stow performed chest compressions on the man, with help from a passing off-duty first responder.

They performed CPR on the man for around 25 minutes until the London Ambulance Service (LAS) arrived and examined the man.

After 10 minutes the ambulance crew detected a pulse, and later a regular heartbeat, 40 minutes after the officers arrived.

The man was taken to an Newham General Hospital in a serious but stable condition, where officers say he is making steady progress.

“You know at some point you will come across a situation like this, but it still does not prepare you for what to do,” said PC Crowdy.

“For all of us it was just instinct. We just knew we had to do everything we could to give him best chance of survival.”

Sgt Jake Sutton said: “These three can be very proud of what they did on that day. Most impressive. Commendable in my opinion.

“Pc Crowdy, PCSO Stowe and PCSO Curry acted quickly without hesitation in what was a spontaneous situation. He added the LAS crew on the scene told him that “had officers not have performed CPR in this way the male would have no doubt been pronounced deceased”.