Amanda Barrie ‘lucky’ to be alive after electric shock

Former Coronation Street star Amanda Barrie has said she thought she would die after suffering an electric shock at home.

The actress, 83, said she was paralysed by a surge from her fuse box when the electric “tripped” at her flat in London.

Barrie told the Sunday Mirror that she thought her “time had come”.

She said: “I could not break the circuit. It felt like two or three days but I suspect it was only six seconds.

“I was in my flat in London and the electrics tripped. I went to put it on, I was touching a lamp behind it. I was pinned by both arms to the wall by the electricity going through me.”

Barrie, who played Alma Sedgewick in Coronation Street on and off for 20 years until 2001, said she was “terrified” when she was unable to remove her hands from the fuse box or the lamp.

She said she yelled for a neighbour, who came to her aid, before “incredibly good-looking paramedics” arrived and took her to hospital.

“Thank God we’ve got the NHS. My hair stood slightly on end. I lit up the West End,” the TV star added.

“I was lucky. My arms were above my heart where the current went through. If they were lower it could have really harmed me.”

Earlier in April, Barrie tweeted a picture of herself with paramedics in her home.

She had written: “⁦@Ldn_Ambulance⁩ Thankyou to my five heroes. So, last night I lit up the West End by electrocuting myself in my own flat.

“Eek! Magnificant #FirstResponders came to my rescue. Very scary but am still here, thanks also to @uclh God bless the ⁦@NHSuk⁩.”

Barrie also appeared in Benidorm and last year took part in Celebrity Big Brother.