PARENTS have expressed their disgust after their stairwell was left covered in blood after a man was stabbed.

The 34-year-old man took cover in the stairwell of a block of flats in Station Road, Westcliff, in the early hours of Wednesday morning after he was knifed in the face and arm.

One witness said of the attack: “I’ve never seen so much blood in my life.”

As a result, the stairwell and corridor were left splattered with blood and residents said that it took more than 24 hours for those responsible to clean it up.

One resident, who has asked to remain anonymous, said it was a horrific thing to wake up to.

The 28-year-old woman said: “We understand that the police have to investigate.

“But surely once that is done it needs to be cleaned up as soon as possible.

“My neighbour has small children and had to take them to school that morning.

“She could barely open the door because the hallway was covered with blood. Her kids were asking what all the red stuff was and she had to explain that someone had been hurt.”

The victim was taken to hospital just before 5am with serious but not life-threatening injuries and police are still trying to track down the attackers.

The resident, who has lived at the flats for just over a year, added: “I didn’t hear anything at the time so was surprised to see it when I opened my door in the morning. It really isn’t nice to wake up to that.

“There are health concerns on top of the fact that it being horrific to look at. What if the victim has HIV or something?

“I know the police are trying to tackle knife crime at the moment but that’s not very comforting when you wake up and see blood all over the stairs.”

Her neighbour contacted South Essex Homes, which runs the building, to ask for the stairwell to be cleaned.

She said: “I opened my front door to see this and my poor kids have to live in this building.

“South Essex Homes don’t even clean this up and expect us single mums to live in this with our young kids.”

South Essex Homes told the Echo that in these circumstances the area couldn’t be cleaned until police confirmed they completed their crime scene investigation.

A spokesman added: “We only received this clearance from the police late Wednesday night so our caretaking team went in to clean up first thing yesterday morning.”

Witnesses or anyone with information about the stabbing are asked to contact Southend CID on 101 or Crimestoppers.