A 46-year-old Clacton man is lucky to be alive after accidentally electrocuting himself while using a lawnmower.

A 46-year-old Clacton man is lucky to be alive after accidentally electrocuting himself while using a lawnmower.

The East of England Ambulance Service was alerted to the incident in Bocking's Grove, Clacton, at 12.20 this afternoon. A rapid response car reached the scene within four minutes and was backed up by an ambulance.

Manager Trevor Redburn said: "The patient had been mowing his lawn when he ran over the electrical lead, cutting it. He then picked up the exposed bit of wire and suffered a serious and sustained shock. His muscles contracted and he began shaking so violently that he was unable to let go of the wire.

"Fortunately the man's next door neighbour heard his screams and jumped over the fence to pull the plug out of the electrical socket and call for help.

"The patient suffered a burn on his hand, head injury, laceration to his back and elevated heart rate. However, he remained conscious and his condition seemed to be stable and not life threatening. We treated him at the scene and took him to Colchester General Hospital.

"This patient has been extremely lucky because shocks like this can and do kill. My advice to people using all types of electrical appliances is, if it becomes damaged, ensure the power supply is switched off at the source, and also ensure any extension leads are unplugged before attempting to recover the damaged equipment.

"Using an extension lead with a circuit breaker can also help ensure safety. Unfortunately in this case, the circuit breaker on the extension lead was broken, so I would advise people to test circuit breakers regularly, as directed by the manufacturer.

"In this case, the patient is lucky to be alive - the situation could easily have turned into a tragedy. I sincerely hope we won't see any more cases like this over the summer."