Paramedics and firefighters work to stabilise the boy before he is taken to Lister Hospital

A BOY has been hospitalised after he became impaled on a metal fence pole on Saturday.

The metal spike which impaled the boy, causing the wound pictured

Paramedics, firefighters and the air ambulance were called to Hillbrow recreation ground in Letchworth GC just before 3pm, where a boy had slipped from a climbing frame onto a metal spike.

A spokesman for the fire service said: “Ironically, the metal spike was part of a barrier to stop children going onto the climbing frame as it had been damaged in a fire the Hitchin crew had attended two weeks prior.” The metal spike was impaled about 25mm into the nine-year-old boy’s abdomen.

Blocks were placed under his feet to prevent him falling further down onto the spike.

Firefighters cut the pole and the boy was taken to Lister Hospital in Stevenage to have the remaining part of the spike surgically removed.