A teenager from Deal had to drag his leg out of a drain after the iron cover split in two beneath him.

Trystan Hinklin, 13, of Northwall Road, was running through the Century Walk alleyway when the cover broke in half beneath him.

The 6ft 3in teen fell, trapping his leg in the opening, which his mother Rosalyn Williams said was an inspection pit and is about 6ft deep.

She said: “His leg got stuck in there but he managed to drag himself out.”

Trystan escaped with a large bruise to his leg, but Ms Williams said if a young child had fallen through it, the injuries could have been more serious.

The Castle Community College pupil was taken to Deal Hospital for minor treatment.

Ms Williams praised Kent County Council for getting temporary repairs in place before 5.30pm on the day of the accident last Monday, but complained that they were not secured to the ground.

As the week went on, she saw that people had been moving the plastic boarding covering the hole.

She said: “The semi-repairs were inadequate. They should have closed the path straight away. It took five days to be fixed.”

Murray Evans, a KCC spokesman, said: “We carried out the temporary repairs as soon as possible after the fault was reported and made it safe to pass.

“We carried out the full repair as soon as we were able, given the amount of work being undertaken across the county.

“On balance, we felt that closing the footpath was likely to produce more complaints from readers inconvenienced by that, than the number of complaints about keeping it open, albeit with a reduced width.”