A RUBBISH collector has been hailed a hero by colleagues and paramedics after saving a man from the brink of death.

Allan Dowling, 52, of West Ashton, was out picking up refuse near Upton Scudamore, Warminster, last Wednesday morning when he spotted an unconscious man near an isolated embankment at Biss Bottom.

Mr Dowling, who works for Direct Work Services, said he thought the man was dead until he detected a weak pulse.

He said: "When I looked up on the embankment and saw a pair of boots sticking up I thought that somebody had been murdered but it seems as if the man had collapsed.

"He was really cold and I knew he was suffering from exposure, I checked for a pulse and found that he was still alive. I think he had been out there all night."

He called the emergency services using his portable work radio, and an ambulance arrived at the scene within minutes.

Paramedics rushed the man, who is in his 50s, to the Royal United Hospital in Bath, where he was treated for exposure.

Mr Dowling said he only spotted the man after noticing his umbrella nearby.

He said: "To see the umbrella flying about was a bit weird as I remembered a murder around this part once before.

"When the emergency services arrived it was hard to get him out because of the rough terrain.

"The drivers of the ambulance asked me how long he had been out there but all I could tell them was that when I found him he was stone cold."

Mr Dowling and other rescuers found a passport and mobile phone at the scene, and the emergency services used the phone to contact the man's daughter in Westbury, who said she had been looking for her father the night before.

Mr Dowling said: "Nobody ever goes up that way so it is very lucky I went up there.

"You get a few dog walkers but in truth it was the umbrella that saved him. The ambulance drivers said I took the right action.

"I did phone the hospital to see if he was all right. They told me that they had moved him to another ward for further treatment."