[Vance]

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- An Australian miner has amputated his own arm with a knife after becoming pinned under a tractor.

In a case evoking memories of American climber Aron Ralston, who earlier this year hacked off his arm after getting trapped under a boulder in a remote Utah canyon, the man severed his arm with a short-bladed craft knife, New South Wales state police said in a statement Sunday.

The 44-year-old man's identity and condition were not immediately released.

The man became trapped late Saturday night three kilometers (1.5 miles) underground in a coal mine near Lake Macquarie, just south of the industrial city of Newcastle.

Police said the man's tractor, used for transport in the mine, was believed to have tipped over after hitting a hole on a sharp bend in a mine shaft.

Another worker discovered the injured miner and raised an alarm, but he insisted on severing his arm below the elbow rather than waiting for rescue, police said.

He was being treated at the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, about 150 kilometers (95 miles) north of Sydney.

Calls to the hospital seeking comment went unanswered Sunday morning. Further details were not immediately available.
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Oh my God. Cutting off your own arm was SO last month.