Man Dies After Crane Falls In River

8 December 2010, 14:24 | Updated: 9 December 2010, 15:39

A man has died after a 27 tonne crane he was driving fell into a partly-frozen river in Cambridgeshire.

It happened on the A142 Old Bedford Road between Ely and Chatteris at around 9:40am this morning.

Firefighters managed to get the man's head and shoulders above the water, but couldn't get him out after one of his feet got stuck.

He was pronounced dead at 1pm.

The driver of the crane was an employee of the Environment Agency, and had been dredging the river.

Police are still at the scene and the case has been reported to the Health and Safety Executive.

Julian Fountain, Incident Commander for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said: "All agencies have worked extremely closely together to make every effort to fully release the man from the water as quickly as possible.

However, due to the location of the crane, the freezing weather conditions and the fact that the man was trapped, this could not happen in time.

This is an extremely tragic incident.

Our thoughts go out to the man's family."