An elderly man has been taken to hospital after falling over in his loft and becoming impaled on a metal table leg.

Emergency services were called to Westfields, St Albans, at about 6pm on Saturday.

A fire crew had to remove part of the roof so that the man could be passed through onto an aerial ladder.

Gary Sanderson, a spokesman from the East of England Ambulance Service, said: "This was a very delicate incident to deal with and our crews worked extremely hard alongside the fire service in a very difficult environment to treat, stabilise and immobilise him before he was removed out of the roof to an awaiting ambulance."

The man was taken to the specialist trauma centre in St Marys Paddington Hospital in London.