A PENSIONER plunged to his death after is mobility scooter fell from an elevated walkway.

An inquest into the death of Benjamin Withers heard that he was leaving a routine appointment at Fareham Medical Centre when his scooter lurched forward through a glass panel and fell onto a concrete path 12 feet below.

He suffered severe head injuries and despite the efforts of medical staff was pronounced dead shortly after the fall.

Photographs from the scene show the badly-damaged scooter surrounded by broken glass and wood after the tragic incident on September 20, 2012.

Emma Snell was in the building on the ground floor when she heard a sudden crash of glass, initially believing an object had fallen off the roof before a colleague told them a man had fallen.

She told the jury: "As we got closer he said 'there's a man out there' and the man was lying on the floor and there was a mobility scooter next to him.

"I ran around and there were two security guards from the shopping centre there and he was lying on the floor surrounded by glass and wood.

"One of the security guards had put a blanket under his head and a nurse was checking his pulse and trying to give him some sort of injection in his arm.

"At some point he passed away."

A police cordon was set up around the scene as detectives worked to establish how Mr Withers, who was known as John, had come to fall.

The inquest was told that Mr Withers was in good health for an 82-year-old man and was at the centre to seek treatment for recurring leg ulcers.

He had used a mobility scooter for about four years and had switched to a new model about six months before the tragic incident.

The inquest, led by coroner Robert Stone, is being held at Portsmouth Guildhall.