A tourist in Tasmania has had his leg amputated in the middle of a raging river after getting trapped between rocks during a kayaking trip with friends.

The visitor in his 60s was partially submerged in water throughout the ordeal, and rescuers said it was clear that “had he remained in the location where he was, and trapped in the rock crevice he would not have survived”.

Multiple attempts to move him prior to the amputation were unsuccessful, police in the Australian island state said.