A police investigation is underway  after a ‘serious assault’, understood to be a stabbing, in Westhoughton left a man in hospital with serious injuries.

Police were called to The Pewfist at around 11.40pm on Wednesday, July 31.

Residents were woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of a police helicopter as police responded to the incident.

Sign up to our newsletters to get the latest stories sent straight to your inbox.

Local councillor David Wilkinson said the assault was a stabbing – with police now going door-to-door in the area as they make enquiries.

Details of the assault have not been released by police but the local councillor has expressed concerns about stabbing incidents, particularly knife crime.

Police were making enquiries on The Pewfist the following dayPolice were making enquiries on The Pewfist the following day (Image: Nq)

He said: “It doesn’t matter whether it was an argument between two people or a fall-out, or whatever between individuals given the circumstances we’re currently in with the levels of knife crime.

“It’s literally every day you read a newspaper, you turn a media outlet on, there are issues around knife crime and it’s obviously causing great, great, great concern amongst members of the public.

“Hopefully the police will have dealt with it, caught the individual, and it will be dealt with as severely as possible – I understand the person isn’t in a life-threatening situation but it could have quite easily been life-threatening.

“I just think there’s a prevalence now of people just picking a knife up and using it, or carrying a knife.”

Follow The Bolton News on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and TikTok.

He added: “That’s what, for a lot of people, causes concern – that a knife is the first port-of-call to resolve issues or threaten people, intimidate people.

 “At some stage the actual penalties that are currently available are going to have to be used, because at the moment to many members of the public it appears the current penalties have no impact at all on peoples’ behaviour.

“It’s no use having a sentence where you can be done for carrying a knife and nobody ever uses it.

“Unfortunately now we live in an age where you can’t send people to prison because there’s no room.”

A Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said: “At around 11.40pm last night (31 July), officers were called to reports of a serious assault in The Pewfist, Bolton.

“One man in his 20s was taken to hospital with serious injuries that are thankfully not believed to be life-threatening.

“Enquiries are currently ongoing.”

A North West Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We were called to this location at 23.34 last night.

“We sent a number of resources including a rapid response vehicle and an ambulance. The police were also in attendance.

“We took one patient to hospital.”

If you have a story, I cover the whole borough of Bolton. Please get in touch at jack.fifield@newsquest.co.uk.