Spice user rushed to hospital after falling ill in town centre

Eyewitnesses described how the man, believed to be in his late 30s, was lying under a bench on Wallgate just before the lunchtime rush.

Police and paramedics arrived to assist the man who had become violently ill in broad daylight outside Subway.

He was overheard telling officers that he had "only had a bit of Spice" and that it is "each to their own".

Onlookers have told the Post how he was asking police if he was being arrested as they searched through his tobacco pouch.

"There's a little metal bench in the street and he was virtually under that lying on his side," said one witness. "There was sick running down the road."

Ambulance staff have confirmed that they received a call just after 11.30am and that a man was taken to Wigan Infirmary after "taking ill".

The event has occurred in the height of a "Spice" epidemic which is currently gripping the region's homeless population.