An off-duty Guardia Civil officer saved the life of a biker yesterday who had had an accident and was bleeding out from a torn femoral artery.

The officer in question was undergoing job experience after finishing training in the Guardia Civil academy and had been posted to Guadix.

The 70-year-old victim had come off his bike and was then run over by a car and was bleeding profusely. The officer took off his belt and made a tourniquet to cut off the bleeding until the air ambulance could arrive.

The accident occurred around 18.45h on the A-325R1 on Tuesday, which links Guadix with Benalúa. The motorbike rider had slowed to turn off the road but was hit by the car behind him. Fortunately, the officer was also driving on that road, at that time and saw what had happened.

Whilst he was attending to the victim another driver had phoned the emergency services and an ambulance had arrived although it was not needed. A Guardia Civil Patrol car from the Guadix post also arrived very quickly and these officers set about directing the traffic, so that the paramedics could work and to clear a space for the air ambulance to land.

He was flown directly to Hospital Cínico de San Cecilio, given the severity of his injury.

(News: Guadix, Granada, Andalucia)