Brave Shauney Lee Scott plunged from a tree and impaled herself on railings - then chatted calmly to firefighters who were called to rescue her.

Shauney Lee, ten, politely asked her rescuers how long they would take to free her arm and also asked each member of the crew his name.

It took the fire crew 45 minutes to cut away the section of rusty fence that pierced her arm at the elbow and came out near her hand.

Shauney Lee was left hanging from the fence near her home in Swalwell, Gateshead, but escaped without severe injuries.

She was detained in hospital, but seems to have full use of her fingers and can feel sensation in her palm.

The youngster was playing with pals in a tree and was bouncing on a branch when she fell five feet on to the fence.

Her mother Lesley, 35, said: "When I saw what had happened I was horrified, but Shauney was amazingly calm.

"It took three-quarters of an hour to cut away the fence and she had to be taken to hospital with the fence in place.

"It was removed in an operation and the wound had to be left open because the fence was so old and rusty and the doctors were worried about infections."

It has been a bad year so far for the Scott family.

The living room ceiling fell on Shauney Lee's brother Connell, four, earlier in the year, just after the family's pet ponies Prince and Frisco had been shot with crossbow bolts.