CHECK-OUT operator Dot Ambrose escaped with just bruises after she trapped her hand in a cash box and was stuck for over an hour.

Dot, 35, had put a note in the cash box at her till at Rawtenstall's Asda store when it got stuck. When she tried to free it she ended up getting her hand stuck up to the base of her fingers.

Colleagues put washing up liquid on her hand to try to free it and frozen peas to stop it swelling, but it would not come free from the box so the firefighters were called.

Station Officer David Bowers said: "It was a very delicate operation. We could not use cutters because her had had swollen and she was in a lot of pain, in the end we used a tool kit with a hack saw and drill to cut through the hinge and free her minimising the vibration."

Paramedics were on stand-by but once she was released it was found she just had bruising and had not broken any bones.

Dot, from Edgeside, has worked in Asda for two years in March. She said: "I am very grateful to the firefighters, paramedics and my colleagues who were very supportive.

"I was just trying to free the note when I got my hand caught and it would not come free."

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