A Vicksburg construction worker’s arm was amputated Thursday afternooon in an accident at the site of the new Natchez Convention Center.

Danny Warner was transported to University Medical Center by ambulance Thursday just after noon after his right arm was severed at the shoulder when a 5,100-pound piece of concrete was dropped on him, said Natchez Police Chief Willie Huff.

Robert Shook, project manager for Carothers Construction at the Convention Center, said Warner and Mike Pickering, both with South Central Heating and Plumbing in Vicksburg, were working to install a concrete grease trap.

The two were installing metal baffles in the underground grease trap at the center’s kitchen on the Wall Street side of the site when the accident happened. When the two finished the installation, Pickering began to lower the trap’s concrete lid into place with a crane.

As Warner was guiding the lid over the trap, one of the straps holding the lid broke, and it fell on Warner, severing his arm.

Shook said Pickering and several fellow plumbers followed Warner to the hospital, and that Pickering went all the way to Jackson.

&uot;It’s a sobering thing whenever something like this happens,&uot; Shook said. &uot;It’s part of the job, (but) I hate to see anybody get hurt.&uot;

Shook said the mood at the Convention site was quiet after the accident.

&uot;It was pretty sober after that,&uot; he said. &uot;Something like this wakes everybody up.&uot;