Toddler loses finger to mower

A three-year-old girl lost a finger and suffered lacerations to her leg after falling under the blades of a tractor lawn mower on the East Cape yesterday.

The toddler, from Ruatoria, about 130km north of Gisborne, was riding on the back of a lawn mower that her mother was driving when she jumped down to run to her father.

She fell underneath the blades and received serious lacerations on her left leg. Her little finger on her left hand was severed, the Gisborne Herald reported.

She was taken to Gisborne Hospital in the Eastland Community Trust rescue helicopter and later transferred to Waikato Hospital in a stable condition.

- NZPA