Trapped Australian coal miner cuts off his arm with Stanley knife

AN Australian miner cut off his own arm with a Stanley knife rather than wait for rescuers after he was pinned under a tractor in a coal mine in the New South Wales Hunter Valley north of Sydney, police said yesterday.

Miner Colin Jones, 43, was operating the tractor three kilometres underground in West Wallsend Colliery near Killingworth late on Saturday when the vehicle laden with three tonnes of limestone dust hit a hole on a sharp bend in the mine shaft and rolled over.

Another worker found Mr Jones trapped by the shattered arm, which was almost severed.