UPDATE: Health and Safety inspectors due at site of Cromer wall collapse which trapped a workman for more than two hours

An HSE spokesman said the inspectors would decide whether further investigations into the accident were necessary.

Emergency services workers battled for more than two hours on Monday to free the contractor after the rubble fell on him at a Mount Street construction site.

The man, believed to be about 50, suffered a broken arm and shoulder but was 'lucky to have escaped without more serious injury', an ambulance spokesman said.

The wall collapsed on top of him at around 2.20pm while he was working from a pit.

By this morning scaffolding had been erected to shore up a brick and flint building on the site and a metal-fencing safety cordon had been placed around it.

The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) was called at 2.20pm and sent members of its Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) as well as ambulance crews and the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

Ambulance staff and fire crews worked together to free the man, who was trapped from the waist down. He was treated on scene before being flown to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

Nicolas Smith, an EEAST assistant general manager, said: 'Crews across the emergency services co-ordinated together to carry out an excellent job in a very challenging environment and ensure this man's injuries were not worse than they were.

'He was lucky to have only sustained the injuries he did given the circumstances. We wish him all the best for a good recovery.'

Fire crews were on scene from Cromer, Holt, Carrow and Dereham. A search and rescue team also attended and nearby roads were blocked off during the rescue.

Local historian Peter Stibbons said the wall was on the site in 1843 when it was owned by Henry Sandford, of Cromer, 'and other occupiers.'

'It could be the remains of a building that stood there in the 1840s,' he added.

'The rest of those houses were built when the new road was built.'