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A BRITISH builder has been hailed a hero after conquering his claustrophobia to pull six people alive from the rubble of the New Zealand earthquake.

Dad-of-two Carl Stockton spent 10 hours smashing through debris to drag four survivors to safety as ­terrifying aftershocks rumbled on.

And he wriggled 20ft up a tiny gap inside a collapsed building to reach two more people trapped inside.

Now the 43-year-old has been invited to the wedding tomorrow of one of the women he rescued.

Carl said yesterday: “The adrenaline kicked in and I went on to autopilot. I was swinging that hammer like a madman. As soon as I heard the voices I just wanted to dig and dig.

“And when I pulled them out it was the best feeling in the world.”

Back home in Wigan, his proud mum Shirley, 70, paid tribute to her hero son last night.

She said: “That’s just what Carl is like. He goes straight at a problem and would help anyone in trouble.

“I was in tears when he told me he was under the rubble pulling out bodies. He suffers from claustrophobia and must have been terrified.

“All he said was that it was very scary but that it was a fantastic feeling to pull someone out alive. To pull out six is incredible.”

Carl, who moved to New Zealand five years ago, was on his lunch break at a building site in Rangiora when the devastating quake struck.

He immediately jumped on his motorbike and rode half an hour to Christchurch. He headed for one of the worst hit areas – the collapsed Pyne Gould building, where scores of people were buried alive inside. Grabbing a hammer, he began smashing his way through the eight inch thick reinforced concrete roof of the four-storey building with the help of another volunteer rescue worker, Jason Sutherland. Their efforts were captured on New Zealand television.

After leading four people to safety, Carl spent several hours wriggling 20ft into a narrow gap in the building to reach two more people.

He said: “For some reason the claustrophobia didn’t affect me. If you asked me to do that now I wouldn’t be able to, but at the time any fear went straight out the window.

“One girl who’d got out from a stairwell told us she was getting married. Jason said he thinks she invited us to the wedding. Then I went back and started working my way deeper into the building.

“Around 3pm there had been a big aftershock and at that point I said my prayers, but after that I forgot about the danger and carried on.

“It was very tight. I crawled into a space about 12in high and went in maybe 20ft. We had hammers, pliers and a hacksaw to try and cut our way to them. Eventually we made enough room for them to follow us out. They were so relieved and they didn’t seem badly hurt.

“I don’t know their full names yet, but I wanted to tell them to do the Lottery and just enjoy their lives.”

But the horrific ordeal has taken its toll on Carl, who lives in Kaiapoi.

He admitted: “I made my way home but I couldn’t sleep, not at all.

“I was alone and I couldn’t stop thinking about a guy I’d left in there... a guy I hadn’t been able to reach.”

His former partner Angela Martin, 42 – the mother of their daughter Georgia, five, and Jack, four – added: “He has told me he has seen things that he never wants to see again.”

And mum Shirley, who lost her eldest child Wayne in a motorbike accident 18 years ago, just wants to see Carl safely home. Fighting back tears she said: “I have already lost one son. I don’t want to lose another.

“I have pleaded with him to get the first plane back home. He’s got children and family and should put them first. I know he is a hero and I know he feels he has to do what he is doing, but he is putting his life at risk.”

She added: “He just won’t listen.

“He tells me not to worry, but I am his mother. What else can I do?”

Voice of the Mirror: Page 8