A 25-year-old Italian man has been left in a coma after being beaten half to death outside a London pub.

And his family has said that the officer in charge of the case had gone on holiday, leaving them in the dark about what was going on.

Marco Pannone, 25, was reportedly punched outside the pub in Brixton on the night of Friday 2nd to Saturday 3rd December and after brain surgery, he is now in a coma in the intensive care unit of King’s College Hospital in London.

The police are reportedly investigating the incident, with Marco’s parents informed the following morning, on Saturday, by a friend on Facebook at around 10am.

The friend said that the young man had been taken to hospital in a serious condition.

Marco, originally from the central Italian city of Fondi in the province of Latina, has reportedly lived in England for about six years, only returning to Italy to deal with bureaucratic matters as a result of Brexit.

His uncle, unnamed, who flew to the UK after he heard what had happened, told Italian media the ordeal was made worse by the lack of official help at the start.

His family has said that the police in London had at first not given them any information about the attack and it was only later, possibly after the Italian Foreign Ministry got involved, that the cops had started to pass on some of the details after initially saying the officer in charge had gone on holiday.

His uncle said that his nephew had “worked as a barman in hotels, bars and pubs without ever having any problems”.

He added: “As soon as I arrived in London, I went to the hospital: they confirmed that Marco’s condition is very serious.

“When he arrived, the situation was desperate and they had to remove part of his skull to try to reduce the pressure in his head and save him.”

Marco’ sister Veronica said that her brother is “between life and death”.

She added: “My uncle went to the competent police station. The investigator who handled the case went on holiday. They gave him the case record number and a phone number. Only now are they contacting him. Probably after the involvement of the Italian Foreign Ministry.”

And speaking about the Italian consulate in London, she said: “They’ve taken our contact details. But we were initially told that they were in no condition to help us, they had no staff. Today, however, they are helping us, they have put an interpreter at the disposal of my parents.”

Veronica added: “We can only pray and hope.”