AN engineer has described how he battled to save his best friend, trapped in a machine press at a Westhoughton plastics factory.

Lee Edwards, aged 21, bravely risked his own life to get Philip Ashcroft out of the vacuum press at the firm where the two childhood friends worked together.

But the 22-year-old, who had just celebrated his birthday, was crushed so badly that he died later in hospital -- with his friend at his bedside.

Today a tearful Lee said: "I did everything I could to save him, but it was already too late."

Father-of-one Philip had climbed inside the press at Barkston Plastic Forming, on the Wingates Industrial Estate, to change a setting when the metal plates suddenly slammed shut around him on Wednesday.

He screamed for help and Lee, who had been his best friend since nursery school, immediately ran to the rescue.

He bravely climbed on to the machine and tried to force open the plates with a crowbar.

Other workers then tried to open them with a forklift truck, but it was more than 10 minutes before they could free Philip from the machine.

Lee, who is still shaken by tragedy, said: "It all happened so fast. Philip went inside the machine as usual and then I suddenly heard screaming. He was trapped.

"I ran to get a crowbar and then climbed on to the machine, but I couldn't lift the press. I did everything I could to get him out.

"Everyone in the factory came to help him. Some of the lads got the forklift truck. Eventually we used it to pull him free and an ambulance crew took him away."

Philip and Lee, both from Aspull, went to the same nursery and primary schools.

They went to different high schools but remained the best of friends. They played darts together and went fishing all over the country.

Lee started working at the factory, which makes plastic catering equipment, in 1998 and helped Philip to get a job there three months ago.

He was at Philip's bedside at North Manchester General Hospital when he lost his fight for life nearly 10 hours after the accident.

Surgeons were unable to repair his friend's crushed liver. Philip, of St John's Road, Aspull, who has a two-year-old daughter, Lauren, had also suffered a punctured lung and his heart had failed. He died at 8.45pm.

Lee said: "It had started out as just another day. We had watched the Manchester United match on TV the night before.

"And in the morning we talked about how we were going to celebrate Philip's birthday at the weekend.

"It was just by chance that we were asked to work on that machine. The accident could have happened to either of us.

"He was a brilliant friend. He was the best friend I had. We did everything together. I still can't believe he's gone."

The Health and Safety Executive has launched an investigation into the tragedy.