NEW VINEYARD, Maine (AP) — Police say the leg of a 4-year-old child was severed by the bucket of a front-end loader at a gravel pit in Maine.

MattGush/Thinkstock
MattGush/Thinkstock
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They say the child was with his grandfather, who was working at the family's gravel pit with the front-end loader at the time.

Franklin County Sheriff Scott Nichols says the injury happened when the child got underneath the bucket. The grandfather had exited the vehicle and turned his attention away from the child when the bucket lost hydraulic pressure, lowered and severed one of the child's legs.

The child was taken to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington before being helicoptered to a Boston hospital. Police are investigating the accident.

It wasn't immediately clear if there would be charges. Police say the grandfather's quick actions saved the child's life.

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