A QUICK-THINKING construction worker saved the life of his colleague last night after the 29-year-old became trapped beneath a one-ton piece of farm machinery, doctors said.

A QUICK-THINKING construction worker saved the life of his colleague last night after the 29-year-old became trapped beneath a one-ton piece of farm machinery, doctors said.

The man, who had been working in the grounds of Bardwell Manor, near Bury St Edmunds, suffered chest, leg and spinal injuries after the back of a soil grading machine crashed down upon him.

But paramedics who attended the horrific accident said he would not have survived if a fellow worker had not reacted rapidly by using a JCB digger to lift the machinery and free his colleague.

"His prompt action probably saved the man's life," said Dr Andy Mason, of the Suffolk Accident and Rescue Service.

"He used the bucket of the digger to lift the machinery off the worker and thankfully his injuries were not life threatening. But if he had not acted so quickly, I don't think the man would have survived."

The incident happened as the construction team worked at the site at around 4pm. Paramedics found the patient unconscious on arrival and he was airlifted to the Norwich and Norfolk Hospital by the East Anglian Air Ambulance.