Sister's agony after sibling became Britain's first victim of horrifying ... trends now

The family of Britain’s first victim of a terrifying new flesh-eating ‘zombie drug’ have shared his horrifying story - in an attempt to warn people off taking the powerful pharmaceutical which has ravaged the U.S. and is now feared to be coming here.

This week a West Midlands coroner ruled that Karl Warburton, 43, died because of acute aspiration pneumonitis, a condition often caused by inhaling toxins. And listed on his death certificate as contributing to his demise was xylazine, a powerful sedative which leaves users in a trance-like stupor, the first time this been recorded in the UK.

Karl, 43, died at his home in the West Midlands last May having taken heroin laced with xylazine, known commonly in the States as ‘tranq dope’.

The drug - used by vets to tranquilise large animals and which lowers the heart and breathing rate to dangerous levels - had never previously been found in the UK.

In Los Angeles, Philadelphia and other large American cities, where xylazine has taken hold, groups of trembling addicts, who mix it with heroin or fentanyl, are now routinely seen hunched over, almost comatose, as large patches of their skin rots.

And fearing that similar scenes will soon be seen in Britain, Mr Warburton’s family have shared the tragic story of how he transformed from the angelic six year old boy pictured here after a lifetime of abuse and trauma to becoming the first Briton to die from taking the zombie drug.

Beaten by his alcoholic father, Karl Warburton left the family home aged eight and turned to heroin and cocaine to block out his painful childhood.

For Diane Warburton - Karl’s older sister - the prospect of similar dystopian scenes playing out on the streets of Birmingham and other parts of Britain is terrifying.

Diane, 48, a mother-of-three told MailOnline: ‘It doesn’t bear thinking about, this xylazine is a killer. It’s evil stuff.’