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Man hit by train loses leg

Emergency room doctors who were brought to the scene amputated the leg of a man who was run over by a freight train and survived in Bustleton overnight.

Emergency room doctors who were brought to the scene amputated the leg of a man who was run over by a freight train and survived in Bustleton overnight.

Philadelphia police said the 48-year-old man was hit by a CSX train when he was in the track area near Grant Avenue and Welsh Road at about 2 a.m. Wednesday.

The man, whose name was not released, was stuck under the train.

CSX spokesman Rob Doolittle said contractors were called in to lift the locomotive off the trapped man. Two emergency medicine physicans from Einstein Medical Center were also dispatched to the scene, and amputated the man's left leg to free him.

The man was taken to Aria Torresdale Hospital in critical condition.

It wasn't immediately known why the man was on the tracks but initial police reports indicated he was lying on the rails.

The northbound freight train, which was headed to Oak Island Yard in New Jersey from Florida, was released to continue on its way at about 6 a.m., Doolittle said.