20 December 2011 Last updated at 04:10 ET

Spike through throat traps Perth woman

A youth worker is in intensive care after being impaled on a spiked railing when she slipped on an icy path outside her front door in Perth.

Kirsty Scott, 23, underwent emergency surgery after the five-inch spike was lodged in her throat and trapped her on the fence for 30 minutes.

Firefighters cut the spike from the railings and she was taken to hospital with it protruding from her neck.

Neighbours found Miss Scott just before 09:00 as she made her way to work.

Tayside Police confirmed that the Perth College student was in the intensive care unit at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

A spokesman said: "Just before 9am on Oakbank Road, there was a report of a woman who had slipped and impaled herself on a fence.

"The emergency services attended. A woman had fallen and been impaled on a spike. It appears to have gone in between her chin and her throat.

"She was breathing and conscious and Tayside Fire and Rescue attended and cut the spike away. She was freed from the fence about 9.25 am and taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee."

Neighbour Graeme Johnson said he initially thought Miss Scott was crouching down to speak to someone in the basement flat until he got close enough to realise the extent of the accident.