A 73-year-old man has been taken to hospital after a 40ft tree fell on top of him.

Ronald Cassidy, a committee member of Little Lever Conservative Club, was trimming trees around the edge of the club's bowling green in Fletcher Street, Little Lever, when the accident happened at 3.20pm this afternoon.

It is understood he was trying to chop down a tree when it fell on top of him.

The man was taken to hospital with head injuries, a suspected broken right leg and a dislocated knee.

A North West Ambulance spokesman said paramedics had put hospital medics on standby ahead of rushing him in.

A spokesman for the Conservative club declined to comment.