A man was trapped for almost an hour under tonnes of rubble when a floor collapsed beneath him on a building site.

The labourer plunged nine feet to the ground beneath a mountain of building blocks that toppled onto him when he tried to move them.

He screamed for his life as firefighters and scaffolders spent 45 minutes freeing him at the site in Montague Street, Worthing.

The man was lifted from the rubble but had suffered multiple broken bones.

He is believed to be in a serious condition.

Steve O'Connor, 33, of Ashacre Scaffolding, said "The lad was screaming the whole time asking us to save his life and to please help him.

"He was really panicking so we tried to talk to him to calm him down, but he wasn't very coherent."

The unnamed labourer, believed to be in his 30s, was alone on the site when the accident happened at 11.30am on Saturday.

Builders from Ashacre were working on a development next door when they heard a huge crash.

Mr O'Connor said: "We rushed round and all we could see was this great pile of bricks and a hand poking out.

"The young lad was screaming his head off.

"It was horrendous.

"We just dived down and started trying to get the bricks up while someone called the fire brigade.

"We also had to secure the building because nothing was stable."

More pallets of blocks were hanging over the rescue site and had to be made safe before paramedics could reach the man.

Mike Churcher, in charge of the first fire crews to arrive, said the firefighters and paramedics couldn't make an immediate medical assessment of the casualty until the building site had been made safer.

He said: "We could hear him calling but couldn't actually see him, and there was a real danger of more blocks collapsing on top of us.

"It was one of those situations where we had to take some risk but balance that against the need to get the man out as soon as possible."

The workmen created makeshift scaffolding and firefighters formed a chain gang to remove the rubble, with every move monitored by safety officers on the ground and first floor to make sure they didn't trigger a further collapse.

After 45 minutes the man was dug out and taken to Worthing Hospital.

Mr O'Connor said: "It was just such a shock to see. Me and the lads are pretty shook up."

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will be investigating the accident.