Trapped angler cuts off fingers

William Messenger was trapped. His fishing boat, driven by the strong currents of Washington state's Wynoochee river, had become wedged against a fallen tree on the river's bank. And between the boat and the tree was Mr Messenger's hand.

With no sign of help, and his shouts unanswered, Mr Messenger cut off two of his fingers, freeing himself, and trudged up the bank. Neighbours, alerted by the man's shouts for help, arrived in a canoe armed with a chain saw and a crowbar.

"When we went by, he said, 'I cut them off,'" Galen Vestal told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The boat, Mr Vestal added, "was tipped up on its side, and the current caught it and slammed it up against the log. He reached out with his hand to try to push off and instead it caught two of his fingers". Mr Messenger, 51, who had been fishing for steelhead trout, used a pocket-knife to cut off his index and middle fingers just below the first knuckle.

Mr Vestal, after calling paramedics, agreed to look for the missing digits.

Taking a plastic bag filled with ice, Mr Vestal returned to the riverbank and found the fingers on the tree. "They were smashed pretty good," Mr Vestal said. "He told me they were broke and that might have helped get them off." Mr Messenger was taken to hospital where a surgeon reattached the fingers. He was said to be in satisfactory condition.

Rick Scott, a sheriff's deputy for Grays Harbor county, said he admired the man's bravery, although he questioned his hasty judgment. "If he'd have known help was not that far away, he might have held off taking the steps that he did."

Today's best video

Today in pictures