Man trapped for hours in grain silo

A man spent several hours trapped chest-deep in a grain silo as colleagues frantically tried to dig him out in KwaZulu-Natal.

As the 30-year-old man remained partially buried‚ several men climbed inside the silo in the town of Winterton and tried to remove a large quantity of grain in the early hours of Sunday morning.

“Provincial services utilised various rescue and cutting equipment to cut a large hole in the bottom of the silo‚ allowing more access for grain to be removed‚” said ER24 spokesman Russel Meiring.

“After several hours‚ the man was finally freed from the silo.”

He was treated for his injuries and provided with pain-relief medication before being airlifted by helicopter to a private hospital in Pietermaritzburg.