A MAN was airlifted to hospital with serious leg injuries after being run over by his own lorry at South-ampton Docks.

The 27-year-old driver had tried to stop his truck rolling away by jumping into the vehicle but he fell under the wheels of the truck.

The man, believed to be from Essex, was bleeding heavily as a result of the accident which left him trapped under the front wheels of the vehicle.

He was airlifted by the new Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance to the Salisbury District Hospital.

The Health and Safety Executive has launched an investigation into the incident.

A spokeswoman confirmed an inquiry had been started but said she could not comment any further.

It was the first time the county's state-of-the-art air ambulance had flown into Southampton after its launch on Sunday.

Fire services, police, a rapid response team, land ambulance crew and a basics doctor also attended the accident. The man was treated at the scene before being airlifted to the hospital at midday.

A police spokeswoman said: "He had parked up the lorry and left the engine running while going to the dockyard. The lorry started going down a slope and the driver ran back towards it and pulled himself up with the steering wheel which turned the lorry's wheels towards him and caught his right leg under the front wheel."

The lorry came to a halt after hitting three other vehicles but the wheel scraped all the skin off the driver's leg.

The man was due to undergo plastic surgery to his right leg at the specialist burns unit in Salisbury yesterday.

His condition was described as "life changing, not life threatening".

The incident happened inside the docks near Dock Gate 4 on Central Road at 11am yesterday.

The incident follows a successful launch of the air ambulance service on Sunday which included a rescue at a motor cross event in north Hampshire on a man in his 40s who had sustained a serious arm injury.

Later on the same day it was called to Gosport to attend to a child who had sustained serious leg injuries in an accident in a quarry.

Based in Thruxton on the northern edge of Hampshire, the air ambulance can reach Southampton in 12 minutes, Winchester in ten and Lymington in 17.