Monk's Blade

A Buddhist monk from Japan was killed after slipping and falling under the blades of his runaway tractor lawnmower, an inquest into his death has found. Guess they're not invincible warriors of God.

The Reverend Seiji Handa was cutting the grass around his peace pagoda when the accident occurred. Last August. What? Six months to determine that?

The coroner's office recorded it an accidental death. He got out of the tractor to inspect something but the vehicle, which was pulling a multi-bladed grass cutting machine, slipped its handbrake.

Handa came to Britain in 1978, when he began building a pagoda to promote peace. He had tended the pagoda with the help of nuns ever since. His main job was to trim the 12 acres of lawns around the monument. Little did he know he would become fertilizer.