SPECIALIST rope rescuers were brought in to lift a man from the top of a weir in the River Irwell at Rawtenstall after he suffered a back injury.

Stuart Johnston, 30, of Grange Close, Oswaldtwistle, was one of a team of four men carrying out repair work to the weir when he suffered a back injury and couldn't move.

A massive rescue operation was launched with 30 firefighters, the rope rescue crew from Lytham St Anne's, plus ambulance crews and police attending the scene near Bocholt Way.

Site supervisor Dave Isbister, of Fleetwood, said: "We are carrying out repairs underneath the weir.

"Stuart was kneeling and lifting some boards when his back went. We think he may have slipped a disc or something like that.

"He was wearing a dry suit. We kept him as safe and as warm as we could until the emergency services arrived."

Mark New, managing director of Newtec Diving Services International, of Blackpool, who Stuart was working for, said: "He was in excrutiating pain and a nurse said he had enough morphine to put an elephant to sleep.

"He could have done the injury just as easily picking something up off the street. It was nothing to do with the work he was carrying out." The men were carrying out contract work on behalf of Lancashire County Council.

Leading Firefighter Michael Joseph, of Rawtenstall, said: "I don't know exactly how he came to be injured, only that he has fallen and injured his back.

"There is a six fppt drop to the weir with waist-high water on one side and a drop of about 15 feet down the other. He was lying in very shallow water on the top of the weir in a fairly central position."

Firefighters put safety ropes downstream across the river to make sure anyone who fell in would be safe.

Mr Johnston was put on a spinal board and then into a basket stretcher before being hauled by ropes. Men were on either side up two ladders which were formed into a ramp.

He was taken by ambulance to Bury General Hospital.

Mr Joseph said: "It took about 30 minutes for us to get him out. We had to be guided by the paramedics and our main consideration was his back injury and to make sure nothing was done to aggravate it."