An 82-year-old man who was attacked by three thieves for his designer wristwatch last year has now died, police have said.

Ahmet Dobran, from East Ham, was assaulted last summer in Newham, east London.

The assailants punched him in the neck and arms and stole his gold bracelet and Longines wristwatch, police said.

He died in hospital in the early hours of Monday.

Mr Dobran had been induced into a coma for several weeks following the August attack, before being moved to a nursing home.

The attack aggravated his Parkinson’s condition, police said, and left him with three fractures to his vertebrae.

One man, aged 33, was arrested and charged with robbery in December, but the other two men are yet to be identified.

Police said they do not yet know whether Mr Dobran died as a result of the attack. A post-mortem examination is yet to take place.

Police have previously released CCTV images of the three men they want to trace.

Iain Wallace, Detective Inspector of Newham CID, said Mr Dobran’s family were “utterly devastated” by the news.

He said: “Whilst we are unable to ascertain at this time that he died as a result of the attack, we do know that are the very least it may have aggravated other existing conditions. We await the results of the post-mortem to determine this.

“Whilst one of the men has now been identified and charged we are still keen to trace two other men who are still outstanding.

“Someone knows who these men are and I would urge them to come forward to stop them from using the same level of violence on another vulnerable person.”