When carpenter Anthony Lelliott virtually cut his hand off in an horrific accident using an electric saw, he knew a permanent amputation was on the cards.

But in a 13-hour operation, surgeons at St George's Hospital managed to successfully re-attach it, despite it being left hanging by skin and bone.

Mr Lelliott, 46, from Walton-on-Thames, in Surrey, suffered the horrendous injury while cutting floorboards.

The surgeons at the hospital in Tooting, south-west London, say it is one of the worst cases they have ever seen.