A father has described 'cutting up his hands' as he joined upto a hundred people trying to lift a double-decker bus to free a trapped unicyclist.

A 55-year-old victim, named locally as Antony Shields, became trapped after his unicycle was in collision with the 212 bus at 6pm on Thursday (May 28) in Hoe Street, Walthamstow.

He is now recovering in hospital following the dramatic rescue.

A video shot from a flat above captured the scene when nearly 100 people rushed to rescue the man and managed to lift the bus off his crushed legs.

Zoheb Ishfaq, 28, Beresford Road, Walthamstow, was one of the first of people to start to lift the bus and admitted he still get flashbacks of Antony Shields’ face in agony.

He said: “I was driving my car with my family and we saw the unicyclist going along.

"I heard a pop and he didn’t come out from the other side of the bus.

"I kind of knew what had happened.

“There were loads of people standing there panicking.

“There was no consensus on what to do. The loudest people were shouting at the driver to reverse, because the longer he was under there the worse it would be.

“The driver tried to go forward which would not have been good.

“You could tell he definitely didn’t know where the guy was under the bus.

“Someone started shouting for everyone to ‘shut up and calm down’.

“After that it was clear he was under there. It sounds crazy but me and two other people grabbed the bottom of the bus.

“I mean I remember thinking this will be futile, what are three people going to do?

“But we had to get him out of there, and another part of me just assumed other people would help.

“This was all happening in under a minute, before I knew it we saw the bus tip, because it is top heavy.

“You could see the body just a bit and the difference it made and I began to think this is actually plausible.

“More people started to join.

“There were hundreds of people around but only enough space for hands on the bus, and we got him out.

“I am relieved to hear he is recovering. When I saw him at first his body was all tangled. I didn’t think he had a chance.

“I remember the moment I thought it would be ok because even after having this bus lifted off him, he still had the strength to pull his own dreadlocks out from under the wheel.”

“I had cut my fingers on the sharp metal bits underneath, but it was nothing major. I just looked down and there was blood on my hands from the strain of lifting the bus.

“It just shows what can be done with collective action.”

Mr Shields is being treated at Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel and is expected to have surgery on his legs today, according to friends.

The father-of-two moved to England from Jamaica and became famous under the performance name Wondernose - balancing items including chairs on his nose whilst riding his unicycle.

His skills earned him television spots on the Jonathon Ross show and various dancehall DVDs where he would perform for crowds of people between bands.

Kiki Brown, from Borwick Avenue, said: “I will go visit him on Thursday. I understand he is ok and is talking in hospital which is a relief.

“He used to balance all kinds of strange stuff on his nose- that’s how he got his name.

“He would come up and down the high street on his unicycle doing his tricks everyone loved it.”