A tree surgeon slashed his own throat with a chainsaw in a horrific accident but still managed to abseil himself down to safety.

Carl Moulton, 41, from Ladbroke Grove, was in a harness working on a 60ft tree in a Hammersmith primary school when he slipped on a wet branch and cut through his neck and arm.

The dad-of-four told the Evening Standard: "I just slipped. Judging from the cuts and how it landed, it hit my arm and then rammed into my neck.

"My first thought was, ‘I’m not going to see my kids grow older. I’m a dead man, I’m a dead man.’

"But then I got some composure and realised I could still breathe and I could still talk."

He managed to abseil down the tree and his colleagues bandaged him up and called an ambulance.

He was treated in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, for a six inch gash on his arm and a three inch wound to the neck.