A BUNGLING trespasser was rescued by police and rushed to A&E after he sliced a finger off while trying to get on to a derelict hospital site.

The 19-year-old tried to scale a spiked metal fence surrounding the former Severalls Hospital site in Colchester when the accident occurred.

Police managed to salvage the man’s finger by taking it along to Colchester’s A&E department in a bag of frozen peas, along with the pain-stricken patient.

He underwent an X-ray before later going to Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, where the finger was stitched back on.

A spokesman for North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, which owns Severalls Hospital, said the man had been with an accomplice who was uninjured, but both had to be freed from the fence by the police.

He said: “It is unfortunate a young man cut off his finger while trying to break into Severalls.

His finger was caught in the fence and it’s just not worth it.

“The site is derelict and unsafe and we would strongly advise the public not to try and break into Severalls.

“In addition to serious injury, the trust will prosecute anyone caught trespassing on the Severalls site.

“Despite repeated warnings, people still put themselves at great risk by trying to break into Severalls Hospital.”

An Essex Police spokesman said officers were called by the ambulance service.

She said: “Police were called to the Severalls Hospital site at around 9.40pm on Sunday to assist the ambulance service in reaching an injured person.

“Officers located the injured man and he was taken to hospital.”

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said: “We got a call at 8.51pm to Mile End, Colchester, to reports of a man who had amputated one of his fingers.

“We sent a paramedic and a rapid response vehicle to the scene and they treated a 19-yearold man, who had lost one of his fingers.”

No one has been arrested.

The incident is the latest in a series of trespasses to the site, which has become a popular haunt for picnickers, amateur photographers and ghosthunters.

Last month, North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust was forced to issue a safety warning to the pubic because of the repeated incidents.

The trust is trying to sell the hospital, off Boxted Road, which closed in 1997, for development.

However, it is having to shell out tens of thousands of pounds for damaged fences and extra security guards to protect it.

A 20-year-old man was prosecuted after breaking into the site on February 7.

Other recent trespass incidents have included an eightmonth pregnant woman who entered the site via a broken fence to take photographs.

At the peak of trespass incidents last May, 58 people were reported inside the fence line.

The dilapidated site is also riddled with asbestos.