TWO tree surgeons used all the skills of their trade to free a lorry driver from a very sticky situation.

The heavy goods vehicle overturned on the A49 near Leominster on Monday afternoon and spilled the liquid chocolate it was carrying all over the busy road.

But diesel was the only thing leaking from the lorry when Dominic Everard and Mark Wosencroft climbed onto its roof.

Fearing a fire, the men managed to turn the ignition off before calling out to other motorists for scissors or a knife.

"We needed something to cut the driver out as he was suspended upside down," said Mr Everard.

"He had a really nasty four inch gash on his head and it was very deep, too."

A woman who had stopped handed over some scissors and the men worked together to push the driver back into his seat and cut him free from his seat belt.

Other motorists had now stopped and helped the pair get the driver out of his cab and down into a police car.

"I was just about to start first aid and then an ambulance arrived," said Mr Everard.

The tree surgeon said the driver was in his 50s and conscious when he left the scene.

"He was pretty badly shaken up and, as well as his serious head injury, he had also badly hurt his shoulder," he said.

Mr Everald was returning to his Hereford home, having finished work on a project in Ludlow when he saw the overturned lorry on the roundabout with the A44.

"A lot of other drivers just carried on but I couldn't have lived with myself if I had not stopped," he told the Hereford Times.

"He was suspended in the air when we got there and must have weighed about 14 stone so it was hard work but worth it. I'll sleep well tonight."

Firefighters have remained at the scene for much of the day to clear up the leak from lorry while liaising with colleagues from the Environment Agency.