Emergency services treat the trapped man

EMERGENCY services staff were today praised for their quick thinking during an operation to save a man being crushed under a one-ton concrete block.

He had been ripping out a swimming pool yesterday at Mont des Landes, St Martin, when some concrete steps collapsed on top of him. When paramedics arrived, all they could see were his hands and feet. He was being crushed by a slab described as being the size of a teacher’s desk.

Although the man was still being monitored in hospital today in case he had suffered serious internal crush injuries, it is thought that he escaped with relatively minor injuries and his condition today was described as stable.

The drama began at around 10.55 am when the ambulance service received a 999 call from an hysterical man. ‘He was panicking,’ said station officer Richard d’Ulivo-Rogers. ‘He said that his colleague was being crushed under a concrete wall, but he did not know where he was, which is the ultimate nightmare. He just knew he was in St Catherine’s somewhere.’

Mr d’Ulivo-Rogers said that emergency crews from the ambulance and Fire and Rescue Service were on the scene within 11 minutes and praised the control room officer for the way he handled the call.