The Labour Department is investigating an accident at the Canterbury A & P Show that left a spectator seriously injured.
A man in his 50s was watching a woodchopping competition when the head flew off a competitor's axe and struck him on the leg, seriously injuring it.
The man was taken to Christchurch Hospital for surgery and is in a serious but stable condition.
A doctor and a surgeon who were in the crowd attended to him before St John Ambulance personnel arrived.
The Canterbury Axemen's Association says it doesn't know how it could have happened. Spokesperson Gordon Smith says competition axes differ from regular axes in having a split-pin securing the head to the handle.
Mr Smith says the man who was using the axe at the time is distraught about what happened. He says the axeman did not feel the head coming loose until it was too late.
Tree events cancelled for day
Show director Rae Finlay says those present responded well to the emergency. "All of the axemen were there," she says, "and immediately they were over the barrier fence lending assistance, doing the crowd control."
In the event in question, axemen standing on boards above the ground chop down a tree.
All A & P tree events have been cancelled for the rest of the day; other woodchopping competition continues.
