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Police in south London have told of the extraordinary moment an ungrateful man they feared was dead sat up and started hurling abuse at the people who had just saved his life.

Paramedics had found the man lying unconscious on the ground in Kingston following a heroin overdose. He was not breathing.

But incredibly, when they tried to perform CPR, a group of “angry” men claiming to be his friends waded in and refused to let them.

The police arrived and pushed the crowd away while the medics brought the man round with six shots of adrenaline.

PC Charlene Gregory said: “When I got to the scene I thought this male had passed away. The ambulance crews looked very concerned and were working tirelessly to do their best for him.

“There were a group of street drinkers who wanted to get near the male stating they were friends and family. Officers had to persuade them to move back so the paramedics could do their job.

"Our main concern was giving the paramedics the best environment possible to be able to save the man’s life.

“The area the crew were working in was full of rubbish and the man was lying in wet mud. It wasn’t an ideal place for them to work in but they all they worked part of a team.

“The paramedics managed to save the man’s life, and to everyone’s surprise he began shouting and swearing at officers and the ambulance crew.

“I told him to stop being so ungrateful.

“The man's so-called friends refused to go to hospital with him as they had ‘drinking to do’.”