Two police officers have been praised for performing life-saving first aid on two people in separate incidents on the same patrol shift — a stabbing victim in Bethnal Green and a heart attack patient in Stoke Newington.

Response officers Mabz Rahman and Ryan McCarthy received accolades from the Met’s Borough Commander for Tower Hamlets and Hackney, Marcus Barnett.

“Their skill and quick-thinking has led to two lives being saved,” Det Ch Supt Marcus Barnett said. “They are a credit to the command unit and the Met – demonstrating the incredible people who do amazing things every day.”

The two officers were called to the Bethnal Green stabbing at 12.30am on August 27 in Teale Street, off Pritchard’s Road, where they found a man with a knife wound in the chest.

Pc McCarthy grabbed the first aid kit from their responder car and bandaged the wound, while Pc Rahman applied pressure.

Ambulance paramedics arrived and took the man to hospital and the officers were told later that his chances of survival would have been slim had they not given first aid quickly.

Just three hours before, the two were called to Somerford Grove, off Stoke Newington Road, where a man had a heart attack and collapsed in the street.

He wasn’t breathing and had a head injury from his fall.

Pc Rahman started chest compressions while Pc McCarthy controlled his airways and had a defibrillator ready.

After his pulse had re-started, paramedics arrived and rushed him to hospital where he was later discharged.

Pc McCarthy said: "On this shift we had to go above and beyond what even we might expect — we were able to do that.”

No two shifts are ever the same, his colleague Pc Rahman pointed out.

"One reason we join the police is to be there at a time when someone is in serious need and do our best to help.”

The two officers are based in the Met’s Central East Command covering Tower Hamlets and Hackney.