Sam’s life is on the line after a truly shocking development saw him impaled amid a cow stampede (Picture: ITV)

Emmerdale’s Sam Dingle has been left for dead after he dived away from a cow stampede – and found himself impaled on tractor equipment.

The character, played by James Hooton, was trying to fix up the gates of the barn during the storm, alongside Belle (Eden Taylor-Draper) and Nate (Jurell Carter).

But the weather conditions were having none of it, and the cows were soon storming out.

The trio fled in a panic, with Sam jumping aside and over bales of hay. Seemed like he’d escaped. Phew!

The focus then shifted to Nate, who went under the hooves of the cows. Luckily, he was somehow unscathed, and Belle was relieved as she rushed to his aid.

Their question then became; where is Sam?

Viewers then saw a brutal scene – his body was slumped across a tractor, with a long, jagged metal bar pierced through him.

It doesn’t look good!

Sam’s fate hangs in the balance (Picture: ITV)

On filming the big stunt, actor James described the process as ‘interesting’.

‘Costume went all out to try and find the best way of dealing with this spike scenario,’ the star explained to Metro.co.uk.

‘It looks really ultra realistic on screen, it’s made of foam – basically one piece sticking out where the normal tractor piece would be.

‘It looked great and was really interesting to film that stuff. We spent a whole day pretty much on one scene, unheard of in soap territory to spend such a long time preparing and shooting just a single scene.’

Sam’s peril looks like it could have resulted in the second storm casualty.

Earlier in the same episode, it was confirmed that Harriet Finch (Katherine Dow Blyton) had been killed by an exploding quad bike she had crashed.

Kim Tate (Claire King) survived the same incident; but she isn’t out of the woods.

Well, she is technically, but not figuratively.

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She is now facing a potential murder charge – after all, who would believe that THE Kim Tate wouldn’t leave an enemy to die?

At least she didn’t have a make-up mirror with her; she’d have been bang to rights.

Emmerdale continues Tuesday October 18 at 7:30pm on ITV.

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That’s one way to go!