A WORKER had his leg mangled at a Runcorn factory when it became trapped in a machine on Sunday morning.

The accident happened in the early hours when a 40-year-old worker at British Gypsum Isover's factory at the Whitehouse Industrial Estate caught his leg in a waste machine.

Firefighters came out at 2.30am with heavy cutting equipment and spent an hour trying to release the victim.

The leg was released intact although a spokesman for Runcorn Fire Brigade said: "It was very badly mangled.

"The lucky thing was there was a stop button right by where he did it."

The victim was freed by winding the machine back on itself. An emergency team from Warrington Hospital was on hand to treat the injured man, who has not been named.

He was taken from the scene of the accident to Warrington Hospital where he is still being treated.

British Gypsum Isover was not prepared to comment on the accident.

A spokesperson for the Health and Safety Executive said it had begun an investigation into the accident, with an inspector visiting British Gypsum on Monday.

She added that the inquiry was likely to take a few weeks.

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