A decade's worth of clutter has been cleared from a man's home after emergency services had to rescue him from an upstairs window.

Paramedics were called to the man's house after a medical emergency.

Staff from an organisation named Lofty Heights, called in to de-clutter the Suffolk house, said there was no safe route to get the hoarder out because of the amount of things in there.

The social enterprise said hoarding was a "hidden problem".

Inside the property, there was no room to sit on the sofa, there were boxes of electrical items and the landing was covered with books, shoes, papers and magazines.

The house was full of cobwebs, there was food crammed in cupboards and nothing worked in the bathroom.

It is understood the man, who has not been named but is in his 60s, struggled after losing his mother 10 years ago.

He was taken to hospital and through Lofty Heights' pilot scheme Homeward Bound, the de-cluttering team got involved.

Chief executive Olive Quinton said: "It's incredibly sad and really it was because of a medical emergency that this person was discovered.

"It's quite a hidden problem and it's one where I think more needs to be done to raise awareness of it.

"It's not about judging people, it's about seeing how people can help."

She said the man funded the £2,500 clean-up operation, which took the not-for-profit organisation six days.

A new bathroom and kitchen are yet to be fitted and the man was said to be "excited" to return to his property.

Mrs Quinton said hoarding was often to do with mental health, bereavement issues or childhood poverty.

She said: "At one point we would be asked to de-clutter an area of a home or a cupboard but now we are dealing with much more complex cases like this all the time."