A QUARRY worker's ankle was crushed by a falling boulder in an accident at a County Durham plant yesterday.

The 53-year-old quarry manager was pinned against machinery for 45 minutes after the accident at Durham Industrial Minerals' Broadwood site, near Frosterley, in Weardale.

Firefighters worked for 20 minutes to lift the boulder and free the man, who was taken by air ambulance to James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

The man, from Wearhead, was last night being treated for what the hospital described as serious but not life-threatening injuries.

He had been carrying out maintenance work on the site, using oxyacetylene cutting equipment, when a boulder fell from the feeder belt of a stone crusher, trapping him between the side of a hopper and the rock.

Firefighters used heavy equipment to manoeuvre the rock away from his foot.

Police said last night that the factory inspectorate had been informed of the accident.

No one from the company was available for comment last night