POLICE officers were unaware that a man lay dying just yards from where they caught his brother following a chase through Bolton town centre, an inquest was told.

Graham Eyres plunged 30 feet to his death from a car park wall into a culvert in darkness and drowned in shallow water after knocking himself unconscious.

His body was only found the next day after brother Colin and a friend returned to the scene.

In a statement read to the Bolton inquest earlier this week, Colin Eyres claimed he begged officers to check the water for his brother.

But officers told a jury they had no idea Mr Eyres, aged 20, of Bancroft Road, Swinton, was lying a matter of feet below in the River Croal, which runs beneath Bank Street and Crown Street, with fatal injuries. Colin Eyres also claimed he was beaten by police after being stopped in Bank Street, Bolton, on the day of his brother's death on April 20, 2002.

Officers who ran after the pair following a fight in the town centre denied both claims.

PC Simon Boydell said: "If I had been told there was someone down there, I would have looked immediately.

"I would have gone and checked the area."

The brothers were chased by police after a fight in Bridge Street at around 2.15am.

The pair ran along Deansgate, down Bank Street and scrambled over a wall at the end of the Bank Street Unitarian Chapel car park.

The hearing continues.