Former EastEnders actor Paul Nicholls has said he is “lucky to be alive” after breaking his leg falling from a waterfall in Koh Samui in Thailand.

The 38-year-old spent three days trapped in a rock pool at the bottom of Khun Si falls on the island before being discovered by rescuers.

He fell from the top of the waterfall in the jungle and was found after a local saw his abandoned rental motorbike, according to The Sun.

Paul Nicholls
Paul Nicholls (Tim Whitby/PA)

Nicholls told the newspaper: “I am lucky to be alive. I had a phone with me but I fell from such a height into the water it was unretrievable.

“It took such a long time to find me. It’s an understatement to say it wasn’t a great situation.

“It wasn’t that I was lost. The problem was I couldn’t move to get out of there.”

Nicholls said his leg is broken and that he is “missing a kneecap” which needs “complete reconstruction”.

According to the report, police managed to trace the rental bike back to Nicholls’ real name, Gerrard Paul Greenhalgh.

In video footage obtained by The Sun, Nicholls is seen being carried out on a stretcher by an emergency team as he cries out in pain.