A MOTHER and her son narrowly escaped serious injury when a crane cable snapped and plummeted, hitting the 14-month-old boy in the face.

Young Cian Welch suffered a gash to his nose and bruising to his head when the heavy metal cable came crashing down on his pram as he was being pushed by his mother, Heather Devlin.

The pair was taking a stroll towards Gillingham High Street when the cable snapped above them.

Ms Devlin, who was also with her four-year-old nephew Ewan, said: "We were walking past Gillingham Library and I stepped out into the road to make sure it was clear when the crane cable snapped.

"We didn’t have time to move and it fell down and wrapped itself around the pram and one side of the wire flicked up and hit Cian in the face and cut his nose. It wasn’t until the next day that I realised just how lucky he was to get away with such small injuries."

Witnesses rushed to help the family while workmen tried to retrieve the snapped cable, but Ms Devlin told them to leave it where it was and demanded to see the site manager.

She added: "All I wanted was an apology but no one wanted to take responsibility – especially not the construction company Mullally. But the crane owners were very apologetic."

The site on the corner of Britton Street and High Street is being converted into homes.

No one from the construction company Mullally would comment.