A BOLTON actor has told of his ordeal fending off bloodthirsty creatures after he fell around 20 foot down a waterfall.

Paul Nicholls, who grew up in Smithills and went to Smithills School, is best known for playing Joe Wicks in Eastenders and was forced to survive for three days in the Thai jungle in July after he fell down a waterfall on the island of Koh Samui.

His knee cap was ripped off and he ended up in a pool of water fighting for his life before he was rescued by volunteers after his rented scooter was seen nearby.

Nicholls said he went over the edge of the waterfall after being set upon by a pack of about 15 wild dogs, thinking that if he got in the water he would not be able to get him.

The Bolton News: Paul Nicholls being rescued after falling down a waterfall in Thailand..Picture by Bright TV 20.

Paul Nicholls being rescued after falling down a waterfall in Thailand. Picture by Bright TV 20

He told ITV's Loose Women: "I hit the water, and I remember thinking 'Thank God the water's deep enough' because I didn't know ... and then my leg hit and I was like 'Oh my God, that's painful!'

"And when I came up, I saw where my kneecap should be there was just a hole. And I was holding onto it and screaming and screaming, and then I let go and a bit of blood squirted into the water and - this is the worst bit - that's when these things came out of the water and swimming.

"I thought 'Those are leeches, those are very big leeches', and as soon as the blood hit the water, these crabs came out, and I managed to get rid of them quite quickly, but the leeches just seemed to start coming out of holes in the wall, they were coming out of the mud, they were just coming out of everywhere."

Ackley Bridge star Nicholls said he was "batting away" the leeches while screaming for help, before taking a risk and dropping to another pool of water about 15ft (4.6m) below where he had originally landed.

He said: "I know I wasn't hallucinating, this was real.

"I spent all day trying to keep my leg from getting more blood in the water, anything that came near me I was just batting away, and screaming for help."

Nicholls, 38, said he thought the area where he was trapped was a tourist spot after he saw a stall selling soft drinks nearby, but that he was left alone.

He said: "Basically, I knew that I couldn't stay in that first pool that I landed in because, if it got dark, I couldn't see these things coming towards me, and I thought if one of them gets on ... I don't know."

He said he could not remember much after falling the second time.

He said: "I remember bits and bobs and I knew I was hallucinating at one point, because I was seeing people down there, and they were opening their front doors and saying 'Shut up, be quiet!'"

Nicholls described the moment he saw his knee had been injured, and compared it to when a boxer's gum shield "flies out of his mouth".

"Something flew out of my knee - it was part of my kneecap," he said.

He said he was rescued when a passer-by who had spotted his abandoned scooter contacted the woman he was renting it from, who then alerted the authorities.

Nicholls rose to prominence playing Joe Wicks in BBC soap EastEnders from 1996 to 1997.