A British 53-year old man survived having his foot sliced off after a train ran over him after he fell asleep on a rail track at a station in western France, according to local reports.

The individual from the Channel Island of Jersey was reportedly inebriated and inexplicably chose to lie down on the track in the station in Rennes in Brittany, western France in the early hours of Wednesday morning, at around 3am.

A freight train entered the station shortly afterwards, according to France Bleu radio. The driver spotted the man on the tracks and jammed on the brakes, but was unable to stop the train in time.

The wheels cut off one of his feet and caused serious head and abdomen but he somehow escaped with his life.

Ambulance workers were quickly on the scene and rushed him to a nearby hospital for treatment. SNCF, the national rail operator, said it was not immediately clear how the man, who was not publicly identified, was able to evade security guards and enter the station at that time of night, when it was closed to the public.

There have been several reports in recent years of fatal accidents involving Britons in France through to have been caused by inebriation.