A life-saving piece of kit has been installed in a Sidmouth supermarket.

Tesco has installed a defibrillator in its High Street branch as part of a roll-out to rural communities where the equipment is ‘sorely needed’.

The firm installed devices in its larger stores in May and has seen two life-saving interventions already.

Lindsey Crompton, Tesco’s head of community, said: “We are always looking for ways to help the communities we serve, and we know that having a defibrillator to hand, particularly in a rural or suburban area where medical assistance might take a little longer to arrive, can mean saving the life of someone suffering a cardiac arrest.

“This initiative has the potential to make a real difference to customers and colleagues all over the country.”

According to the British Heart Foundation, 30,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest outside of hospital in the UK every year, but less than one in ten survive.

For every minute without CPR and defibrillation, a person’s chance of survival decreases by around 10 per cent.