A woman who gave first aid to a Catford crash victim claims a crowd of onlookers refused to help and stood taking pictures with their mobile phones and hurling abuse instead.

Lee Bristow, 45, was driving along Perry Hill at around 2am on July 22 when she saw the 21-year-old pedestrian getting hit by a car.

The man, named locally as Alexander, was later taken to hospital suffering serious head and chest injuries and is in a life-threatening condition.

Ms Bristow said she stopped her car and rushed over to help after seeing a group of people drag the man to the central reservation and put a blanket on him.

She said: "I tried to open the guy's airways so he could breathe.

"There's five people standing over this guy. I asked them to help me get him in a position to open his airways. No one wanted to help. They were just taking pictures and basically watching the guy die."

She added: "What was the most disturbing bit about it is there were five adults leaning over a 21-year-old boy and no one was helping. No one would get down on their hands and knees and get blood on them and help this guy who was actually breathing his last breath.

"The crowd was so hostile. There was a lady there who was just abusing me.

"I got the police on the phone to me, telling me what to do.

"Truthfully, if I'd never opened his airways when I did he wouldn't be alive today."

Ms Bristow, who said one woman did eventually help her, later drove to King's College Hospital and spoke to the police about what had happened. Later that day she went back to the scene to speak to those people who had refused to help.

A 62-year-old woman, who said she was "upset" with Ms Bristow for moving the victim, said: "I went out with one of my neighbours because it sounded bad and I saw this young guy in the road.

"He had been hit by a car and he was in a very bad way.

"There was the car driver and another guy who were calling for an ambulance on their phones. There were a couple of other people - someone brought a blanket out.

"The car was a wreck, the windscreen was completely smashed.

"We were in shock. It was absolutely awful."

The woman added the young man had been having an argument with his girlfriend before the accident.

She said: "The guy - his name is Alexander - he had been arguing with his girlfriend just before it happened.

"Later she turned up and there were hysterics.

"The driver was saying he had just walked out in front of the car."

The woman added there have been a number of accidents along that stretch of road in recent years.