A man’s right arm was “torn off” in an industrial accident at a Rainham plant on Friday morning.
The London Ambulance Service was called to the Ballast Phoenix waste processing site on Coldharbour Lane at 7.30am, where an ambulance crew treated the man, in his 40s, for a serious arm injury, an LAS spokeswoman confirmed.
A spokesman for London Fire Brigade confirmed that a team from Wennington Fire Station was called just after 7.46am. They used cutting equipment to free the man and left the scene at 8.42am.
A Havering Police spokesman said the man had removed a safety door so he could access the mechanism of his machine to free a piece of trapped metal.
But the machine started running again and the man’s arm was “torn off”, the police spokesman added.
The man was airlifted by London Air Ambulance to the Royal London Hospital.
Ballast Phoenix declined to comment but confirmed it had launched its own investigation into the accident. A spokesman from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) confirmed the HSE was also investigating.
Ballast Phoenix opened the Rainham plant in 2007. The HSE has not served the site any notices in the past.
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