A pensioner is in a serious condition in hospital after his foot was chopped off in a freak boating accident.

The 65-year-old Stevenage man was with friends on their boat on the river Ouse near St Neots on Saturday evening when he fell overboard and caught his foot in the propeller – severing it from his leg.

The emergency services were scrambled to the scene, arriving shortly before 6.45pm. The Magpas Helimedix team and ambulance paramedics used a tourniquet to stem the bleeding and dressed the wound, before the man was rushed to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge for surgery.

His condition is described as serious.

The injured man’s wife was also hurt in the incident. Ambulance paramedics treated her for a laceration to her forehead.

Magpas doctor, Anne Booth, who treated the man by the riverside, said: “The pleasant day out for this man and his wife ended in tragedy for them in this awful incident. We were able to prevent him losing more blood and we were able to relieve his pain. We wish both the patients a swift recovery.”