A British expatriate might have been crushed to death had it not been for quick-thinking Marsascala neighbours who promptly lifted his wife’s car when the jack propping it up snapped and the vehicle fell on top of him.

Scotsman Thomas Dadds, 68, said that when his wife tried to start her car on Sunday, she heard a loud bang and the car refused to budge.

“I jacked it up, removed the front wheel, went round to the front of the car and slid my head beneath it.”

Suddenly the screw thread snapped and Mr Dadds was trapped, with the bottom of the radiator pressing against his head while the skirting was pressing down on his neck, choking him.

“I felt my head being crushed. I screamed. My wife, who was on the balcony, ran down to the street, screaming. I could see my whole life flash before me.”

Luckily, being a Sunday, a number of people were out in the normally quiet street.

Seeing the commotion, about five people rushed over to the car and propped it up enough to allow Mr Dadds to roll over on his side and free himself from the clutches of death.

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