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A solicitor who paraglided into the roof of a house in Derbyshire was in a "stable" condition in hospital yesterday. Ian Rodger, 32, from Sheffield, crashed into Mrs Judith Newboult's attic in Hathersage, Derbyshire.

"The noise was terrible. You would have thought a plane had hit the house not just a person," said Liz Wain, who saw the accident. "He seemed to be tangled up in his parachute strings. He was flying, but only just, and he was just above a tree. The next thing he went whoosh, straight into the roof of the house opposite. He went in backwards. All you could see were his two feet sticking out of the roof."

Mr Rodger is a member of the Derbyshire Soaring Club and the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association. Tom Beardsley, national safety officer for the BHGPA, said accidents were comparatively rare in hang- gliding and paragliding. The association's 8,500 members took part in about 500,000 flights a year. On average about 150 incidents were reported every year. About 100 of those involved injuries, he said. So far this year there had been no fatalities, Mr Beardsley added.