A supermarket worker was left dangling in a service lift after one of the cables snapped, trapping him for several hours.

Fire crews used hand-operated winches to raise the lift, which was left hanging ten feet from the bottom of a shaft on one cable.

Firefighters described the rescue, at Waitrose in The Martlets, Burgess Hill, as "unusually protracted and difficult".

Station Officer Paul Fuller, of West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, said the man was stuck in the service lift with a large crate of boxes for three-and-a-half hours.

He said: "He was using the lift to bring supplies from the stock room to the shop floor.

"Midway through the descent one of the lift chains snapped and the progressive brake system locked the lift car between floors."

Firefighters at first tried to use air bags to lower the lift but had to resort to winching it up by hand because damage to the lift car made lowering it impossible.

Mr Fuller said the man, who had not been named last night, was in good spirits at the end of his ordeal, which began shortly after 11am yesterday.

Tuesday December 16, 2003