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UPDATE: Police said the man created an “elaborate device” to intentionally cut off his arm.

The home-made guillotine was built with 2-by-6s at least 12 feet long, a few 2-by-4s and a construction-grade cutting device that was 2-feet-by-3-feet and half-an-inch thick. Part of the metal had been sharpened, said Mark Young, public information officer for the Bellingham Police Department.

The homeless man — described as at least 40 years old — was known to police and had apparently intended to harm himself because gauze and tapes were found next to the guillotine, Young said. The man’s right arm was severed just below the shoulder.

The man was taken to PeaceHealth St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Bellingham before being flown, along with his severed arm, to Harborview.

Young said the guillotine was dismantled with a chain saw for “obvious reasons of public safety.”

–from staff reporter Jeff Hodson

EARLIER POST:

From staff reporter Susan Gilmore:

A man was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center today after he walked into a medical clinic in Bellingham with a severed right arm.

The man told police that the injury was self-inflicted.

Officers checked a wooded area near the clinic and found a camp believed to be the temporary home of the man.  At the camp, police found the severed arm and a homemade guillotine.

The arm was taken to the hospital with the man to try to re-attach it, said Bellingham police.