LITTLE Samantha Makin is recovering at home after undergoing a two-hour operation to remove a spike from her hand.

The lively nine-year-old, who lives in Greenroyd Avenue, took a short cut with friends through a park, off Glaister Lane, Breightmet, by climbing over a fence on Wednesday evening. But her hand slipped and it became impaled on the metal fencing.

One quick-thinking friend managed to hold Samantha up to ease pressure on the hand, as others ran for help. Another friend then brought a bin over for her to stand on.

Firefighters were called to cut the terrified youngster free and spent around 20 minutes slowly cutting through the fencing. Her distraught mum, Heather Makin, aged 36, and step-father Frank Bailey, aged 55, who had been called to the scene, tried to comfort her.

She was rushed to the Royal Bolton Hospital with part of the fencing embedded in her hand and underwent a two hour operation.

Mr Bailey said:"She's still a bit sore but it could have been a lot worse. We kept talking to her and even started singing, just to distract her from what was going on. All this time she was standing on a bin.

"The emergency services were brilliant and Sammy was very brave. We're still not quite sure of the extent of the damage - we'll find out more when they run some more tests in the next couple of days."