A PARACHUTIST has thanked divine intervention after he was left dangling 60ft from the ground in a church graveyard.

Former soldier Adam Bell realised he was going to miss his landing site after he opened his chute during a jump from 10,000ft over Peterlee, east Durham.

With the wind at his back, he was blown past the airfield and towards the spire of St Saviour's Church, in Shotton Colliery.

Anticipating a painful landing on the church roof, he closed his eyes and braced himself.

But a last-minute change in wind direction swept him into the high branches of a tree in the churchyard, from where he was rescued by the fire brigade.

Adam, 21, said: "I could see the gravestones getting bigger and bigger and I thought, this is going to hurt.

"I have had a lucky escape.

Someone must have been looking down on me."

He took off from Peterlee Parachute Centre on Saturday for what was to be his 27th and most eventful jump.

Emergency services went to the scene shortly before noon on Saturday and rescued him using a ladder and harness.

He was checked by paramedics and treated for minor cuts and bruises.

The telesales boss, who served with the Royal Signals and who has been parachuting for nearly a year, said: I was probably at about 300ft when I realised things had gone wrong.

"I was not pointing at the landing site and I was travelling downwind and could not turn.

"Basically, I had not been paying attention and had flown too low. It was a pretty bad situation.

"I was coming in at about 40 or 50mph and I thought I was going to land on the church. I could see people down below looking at me and pointing. I thought if I hit that, I'm dead, but if I had turned, I would have smashed into the floor.

"I just braced myself and covered my face.

"I thought this is going to hurt, but the next thing I knew I was in the tree. I'd landed on a big branch.

"I got a few cuts and bruises to my face but apart from that I was all right."

Mr Bell said a kind-hearted stranger who was gardening nearby, climbed to 20ft below where he was stuck and reassured him that emergency services were on their way.

A spokesman for Peterlee fire station said: "We have never had a callout for anything like this before."

Crews worked for an hour to free Mr Bell while up to 50 onlookers gathered below.

Ian Rosenvinge, director at the Shotton Airfield centre, said: "We have had both novice and experienced jumpers land off the airfield before, but this is the first one in a tree in a churchyard.

"Adam had done about 20 or 30 jumps. But it was an operator error, I'm afraid.

"He just got it wrong and left himself with nowhere to land.

"As soon as I saw him go downwind, I was worried for him. He had nowhere to go and no time to take evasive action.

"He is a very, very lucky guy and we are relieved he is okay."

Mr Bell, from Burnopfield, near Stanley, County Durham, said his experience had not put him off parachuting.

He said: "I feel lucky to be alive and might celebrate with a few pints, but I cannot wait to get back up there."