Chinese man survives after steel rod skewers him

London, July 24 (ANI): A carpenter in China has survived after being skewered right through his body by a steel rod sticking out of a concrete slab.

Lu Jiang, 43, was working on the second floor of a new building when he slipped and fell on to the solid metal bar, which pierced him just below the waist and came out on the other side of his body by his neck.

Lucky for him, the pole missed all his major organs.

"I hit the ground pretty hard but my first thought was 'God, I am still alive'," the Sun quoted Lu as saying.

"I could see my hands and my feet and nothing seemed to be broken but then I found I couldn't move and I thought my back was broken.

"It was then that I felt a steel rod coming out of my back - and then realised it had gone in through the bottom of my body.

"I was terrified - everyone was looking at me and some had covered their faces in horror - I was pinned like that for more than an hour until emergency services could cut me free," he revealed.

Lu was transferred to the local hospital in Sichuan, South East China, where he was met by his wife Peng Minghui, 35, who had been called by building site managers.

The three-hour operation was a success though the surgeons had to struggle to remove the 120cm long and 2.5cm wide steel rod, which he has been allowed to take home with him.

"I am going to plant a tree in my garden and use this as a support rod to say thank you for the fact that I survived," he said of the rod. (ANI)