Men survive 500ft lift plunge

Three men working on a high-rise television mast escaped with leg injuries yesterday after the lift they were in fell nearly 500ft.

Jim Burrows, Richard Walton and Mark Spencer, were working for National Transmitters on the 1,200ft Belmont transmitter near Louth, Lincolnshire, when the cable- operated mechanism failed. The lift collapsed when it hit buffers 30ft from the ground. It took firefighters two hours to cut the men free.