A piece of equipment weighing more than two-and-a-half tonnes landed just 2ft from a member of deck crew on a North Sea platform, it has emerged.

Two companies have been served with improvement notices by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the incident on the Magnus installation 100 miles (160km) north east of Shetland.

The equipment fell 5ft in May, missing one worker by 2ft and another by 15ft.

Improvement notices were served on EnQuest and Odfjell Drilling.

A sling used for the lifting had failed.

An EnQuest spokesman said: "EnQuest can confirm that a lifting incident occurred on the Magnus platform on 4 May and that an investigation is under way.

"No-one was injured and we have taken learnings identified to date to prevent re-occurrence.

"We are fully engaged with the HSE and on target to comply with the terms of the notice by the required deadline."