A 60-year-old telecoms workman was injured yesterday after he plunged 40 feet down a service shaft at a school.

The Bermuda Fire & Rescue Service said the BTC employee fell after he slipped off a ladder while working at The Berkeley Institute in Pembroke.

A total of nine firefighters were sent to the scene.

Workers from Digicel/BTC, Belco, ambulance personnel worked to rescue the man, who suffered cuts to his head and pains in his chest.

The accident happened at about 10am as the man worked in a utility area that services Government TV station CITV.

Lieutenant Russann Francis, spokeswoman for the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service, said two emergency personnel climbed down to reach the worker. She added: “The patient was secured to a backboard and extricated.”

A police spokesman said the man was “alert and conscious” when he was freed at 11.15am and rushed by ambulance to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for medical assessment.

A spokesman for BTC said: “The safety of our employees is paramount and a full investigation will take place. BTC would like to thank the emergency services for their quick response and professionalism while his friends and colleagues at BTC are here to support him as he makes a full recovery.”

The Government Health and Safety Officer has been notified, and an investigation into the incident is under way.

In a separate incident, a workman at a business on Industrial Road, Southampton required hospital treatment for a head injury after he fell six feet off a ladder.

Fire service staff were called after the injured man was “not responding normally” after the accident at Viking Foods just before 9am. Lieutenant Francis said health and safety officials had been notified.