A WORKER is recovering after surgeons battled for more than 15 hours to save his hands after an horrific accident.

Machine operator Harry Fishwick had four fingers sliced off one hand and his other hand severed after an incident with a guillotine blade at the Sappi paper plant in Feniscowles.

Health and safety officials are now investigating the incident as Mr Fishwick recovers at Withington Hospital in Manchester.

It is understood the 55-year-old's injuries were caused by the guillotine blade of a reel splitting machine which is used to cut giant rolls of paper at the Feniscowles plant. The four fingers on his left hand were cut off and his right hand was partially severed in the incident. Mr Fishwick was taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary before being transferred to Withington Hospital where he was operated on for 15 hours.

A spokesman for the hospital today said that Mr Fishwick was making "very good progress" although it is not yet known how successful the operation to repair his hands had been.

An engineers' report is now being carried out on the machine and a team of managers from Sappi's Brussels head office have travelled to the factory this week to investigate how it happened.

General manager Willem Merkx said it was too early to comment on the possible findings of the investigation.

"We regret this incident very much and we are doing our utmost to help the person and his family deal with what has happened.

"It is too early to speculate on the cause of the accident but we are giving this incident our full attention."

Sappi Europe's Blackburn Mill manufactures paper used in catalogues, brochures and leaflets. In the last two years more £40 million has been spent on rebuilding the paper machine at the mill which employs more than 200 people.

Five years ago a 47-year-old worker died after an accident at the plant in which he was trapped in a paper coating machine.

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