A man who plunged down a drain and spent over a day underground told a friend last night he feared he was going to die down there.
David Miller had been on his way to collect a prescription from a chemist when he fell.
‘All I remember is a big bang and then darkness,’ the 48-year-old recalled.
He had left a friend’s home in Barking, Essex, last Wednesday and ended up six miles away in Romford.
He was rescued from a surface water drain in Brentwood Road, after local business workers heard his cries coming from beneath a manhole cover.
Mr Miller, who injured his legs and feet, lives with his good friend, Anthony Shannon, 44, in Barking.
David Miller, 48, left his home in Barking, London, last Wednesday and ended up six miles away in Romford after spending a day underground
Mr Shannon said: ‘It took him hours and hours to get out.
‘He just remembers waking up in a dark place and the next thing he was crawling around screaming for help.
‘He didn’t know where he was.’
Mr Shannon said shattered and badly-injured Mr Miller crawled in agony past a string of manholes before he reached Brentwood Road.
But Mr Miller was too exhausted to be able to lift the heavy manhole covers and escape himself.
‘He passed several but he couldn’t open them. So he would go on to the next one and the next one.
‘But with his legs in a bad way, his heels completely broken and smashed, he thought he would die,’ Mr Shannon added.
‘I was really worried when I couldn’t find him.
‘I called up a few hospitals and they wouldn’t tell me any details.
‘This shouldn’t happen to people.
Police officers pull the man from the drain on Brentwood Road in Romford (pictured)
‘It’s never happened before, he wasn’t even drinking. It makes me think he may have been mugged.’
Police officers and shocked local residents finally rescued Mr Miller from the sewer, after hearing his desperate cries for help.
Mr Miller was given emergency treatment at the scene for his leg injuries and exposure to cold and water, as he was suffering severe hypothermia.
He entered a surface water system that carries rainwater from roads straight out to the River Rom.
Network engineers from Thames Water have carried out an urgent investigation into his surreal ordeal.
They believe Mr Miller entered the underground system via a surface water outfall on a new housing estate near South Street, Romford.
A Met Police spokesman said: ‘It is hard to say if the victim entered at that point.
‘There is nothing to suggest at this moment in time that there was any malicious intent.’ A Thames Water spokeswoman said: ‘This man had a lucky escape.
‘Entering a sewer is clearly very dangerous and not something anyone should attempt to do.’