Part of Brighton’s Palace Pier collapsed beneath the feet of a visitor.

Fakhouri Sami Yassan, 29, of Fitch Drive in Brighton, was walking along the pier at around 6pm on Sunday night when a piece of the wooden decking gave way.

Mr Yassan said his leg dangled precariously underneath the pier as he fell down and he was taken to hospital, where he was treated for cuts and bruises to his arms and legs.

Mr Yassan said: “Some of the old wood just gave way. I put my hand out to break my fall and now I can’t move my thumb. The hospital think that it might be fractured.

“I was lucky that another piece of decking didn’t give way or I’d have fallen straight through.”

Mr Yassan said he managed to pull himself out of the hole before anyone from the pier came out to check on him.

He said: “I called the pier the day after to tell them what had happened.”

He added: “Considering what happened I don’t feel that this has been satisfactorily dealt with. This incident could have been so much worse if it had been a small child.”

Being a commuter Mr Yassan has had to take time off work because he is unable to drive to the office he works at in Crawley.

Mark Eteen, duty manager for Brighton Pier, said: “I am aware that a gentleman got injured out on the decking and hurt his wrist.

“According to our report the incident occurred with just one piece of decking that a gentleman fell on so he couldn’t have been close to falling through.

“We have the wood for the decking imported from overseas because of its durability.”

“We have an in-house mainte- nance team that deals with all repairs on the pier and they check the decking there on a daily basis.”