A BIZARRE accident put a spoke in the wheel of young Scott Birtles' karate plans.

The mischievous seven-year-old got his finger stuck in a bicycle chain and now it looks as though his yellow belt exam might get the chop.

Scott, of St Helen's Road, Bolton, had volunteered to help a friend repair his bike when the accident happened yesterday lunchtime.

The chain slipped trapping his finger with the bike frame.

In desperation his worried mother, Sheila, alerted the fire brigade, but the youngster, who was screaming out with pain, was freed after several minutes by an employee from the nearby Renault garage.

He was taken to hospital and treated for badly damaged tissue to his finger, and his arm put in a sling.

Afterwards his mother said: "He was screaming out with the pain and I didn't know what to do.

"I am thankful to the man who freed him for me.

"The only problem now is that he is due to take his first karate exam on Sunday - his yellow belt - and he is desperate to be fit in time to take it."

Accident prone Scott, who is a pupil at Heathfield School, once knocked his front teeth out in a fall and had to have stitches in his mouth after he was bitten by an alsatian dog.

Sheila added: "I am tempted to have him locked in his bedroom to keep him out of trouble."

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