A girl impaled on a metal spike after falling out of a tree is lucky to be alive, her mother said today.

Eight-year-old Laura Jennings, pictured, of Camellia Mount, Lidget Green, Bradford, was trapped with the sawn-off fencing pole caught in her thigh when she fell from the tree in Glenrose Drive, Scholemoor, on Friday.

But now the Lidget Green Primary School pupil is on the road to recovery after firefighters rescued her by cutting her free from the railings after a 45-minute ordeal.

Laura's mum, Dawn Wilson, said: "The first we knew was when a neighbour told us. We rushed around and found she'd fallen out of the tree and was hanging there impaled on the railing.

"Someone had cut the top of the railing off, and it had gone right through the top of her thigh and into her leg. It hadn't gone completely through but you could see it pushing through the skin on the other side of her leg. If it had gone through her body, she wouldn't be here now.

"I was really proud of her because she was really calm all the way through. She was in a lot of pain but she was very brave.

"She's had an operation and she's all right now - but she won't be climbing any more trees for a while."