Man's hand is severed after he attempts to mince his own meat at butchers

A man’s hand was severed from his arm after he attempted to mince his own meat at a butcher’s shop.

The customer, who is thought to be aged 19 or 20, put the meat in the grinder at Surrey Halal Meat Butchers after arriving only moments before the shop was due to close for the evening on February 11.

Malik Raza, who owns the New Malden butchers, says that the customer had arrived to pick up an order when the incident happened – and he had gone to a walk-in freezer at the time.

Recalling the horrific incident, he said: ‘He had come over the counter and took the mince in the cubes, and put them in the grinder to do it himself.

‘He said he was in a rush. Why couldn’t he wait? He started loudly crying and crying, so I came back. I saw his hand was stuck inside. I called 999 straightaway.

‘The ambulance staff told me to go outside so I couldn’t see what they were doing. My heart was beating so fast, I was so shocked. We were crying too. They said I shouldn’t see what was going to happen.’

Mr Raza added: ‘It’s very sad. We couldn’t sleep or eat for two or three days, it was so disturbing.

‘I have diabetes and it made it worse. We keep thinking about it. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before.’

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Both the London Ambulance Service and firefighters from Wimbledon attended the incident.

A spokesman for the London Ambulance Service said: ‘The LAS were on the scene first. We were called because they needed our equipment to get him out.

‘We had to reverse the grinder. His hand had to come out the way it had come in.’