KLANG (Selangor) • A long iron spike pierced through the armpit of a 68-year-old man when he fell off a ladder while pruning plants at his Selangor house.

The spike was part of the fencing around Mr Ng Ah Eng's house, and he was lucky as no vital organs were affected in the freak accident, said Senior Fire Officer II M. Sathiaseelan from the fire station in the Selangor township of Kapar.

A neighbour called the Fire and Rescue Department at 4.40pm, and a team reached the scene within five minutes.

"The fence's rods are solid iron, but we managed to cut through three of them in 20 minutes," said Mr Sathiaseelan.

Pictures of the accident showed a calm Mr Ng waiting to be rescued.

Mr Sathiaseelan said the firemen did not pull the iron rod out from Mr Ng as it could cause profuse bleeding. "We took him to hospital by ambulance with the iron piece (he was impaled by)," he said.

Mr Ng was rushed to the emergency unit of Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah nearby for removal of the rod and subsequent treatment.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK