British tourist has died after being left lying unconscious in a pool of blood during a suspected robbery at a popular Portugese holiday resort.

It is believed Ian Haggath, 50, from Gateshead, Tyneside, was attacked by the same four youths who beat up an Irish man in in the same neighbourhood of Albufeira last month.

Both men were attacked in the dangerous Montechoro neighbourhood of the Algarve town, the Sunday Sun newspaper reports, adding that it understood Mr Haggath’s body would be repatriated this week.



Mr Haggath was attacked during the early hours of the morning on the weekend of 14-15 May at a junction near Albufeira’s ‘worm roundabout’ and the three-star Janelas do Mar Hotel, where he had been staying with a friend.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has confirmed that he died on Wednesday after having been transferred in a critical condition to Faro Hospital by paramedics who treated him at the scene of the incident.

It is believed Mr Haggath, a keen bowls player for Dunston Bowls Club, had been returning to his hotel from the resort's notorious strip when he was set upon and left with broken cheek bones, a fractured skull and blood on the brain. He has two brothers and one of them is thought to have flown from Tyneside to the Algarve to be at at his bedside.

Mr Haggath was found by three fellow holidaymakers, one of whom said they had tried to help him, 'until the ambulance came'.

The man, who asked to remain anonymous, added that his friend had also 'had bottles and stones thrown at him, about five minutes before the man got attacked'.

His friend had described his assailants as “four young lads: one had ginger hair', and warned: 'The Montechoro area and top of the strip are not safe in the early hours of the morning.'

A source at the Janelas do Mar Hotel said the attack on Mr Haggath was the first of its type that had involved one of its clients and that it had been 'informed of what had happened at around 4.30am,' according to website The Portugal News.

David Hoban, 44, from Dublin, was attacked on Saturday, April 16, about half a kilometre from where Mr Haggath was assaulted.

Mr Hoban was pummelled with cobblestones and had his nose broken before being slashed across the face with a knife.



He said he had been targeted after being followed by four men 'all aged under 25' from the top of the strip into a side street that led to the Montechoro Hotel.

Mr Hoban told The Portugal News that one of his attackers also had “ginger hair – as if he had tried to bleach it but it went wrong.”

Albufeira Councillor for Security, Ana Pífaro, said the Town Hall had not been informed of a 'suspicious group' in the area.

However, he added that the Portuguese Republican National Guard (GNR) did not 'transmit this type of information, as the matter is being investigated and any leak of information can damage the successful resolution of cases.'

GNR spokesperson Colonel Sequeira confirmed that an investigation was being carried out into the attack on Mr Haggath and said that it was possible that the same gang were responsible for both attacks.