London Fire Brigade frees man stuck in child's car

A man stuck in a child's toy car and 36 people trapped in handcuffs were among the call-outs to London firefighters last year, the brigade has revealed.

They were among 417 incidents attended by fire crews involving people stuck in objects, machinery and furniture.

The removal of rings from fingers accounted for 160 incidents while 74 people had other objects removed.

The brigade urged people to take more care to avoid getting themselves into "ridiculous" situations.

'Time-consuming'

Dave Brown, the brigade's assistant commissioner for operations and mobilising, said: "You wouldn't believe some of the incidents we're called to deal with... but there is a serious side to this.

"These incidents are time-consuming, costly and take up the precious time of our crews who are then unavailable to attend other, potentially life-threatening, emergencies."

Among the call-outs between April 2010 and May 2011 was one to a man who went to hospital with a ring stuck on his penis.

Two fire engines and 10 firefighters attended the incident and it took 20 minutes to cut the ring off after staff at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, south London, were unable to prise it off.

The figures showed 133 people had become trapped in or under machinery or other objects, and 14 people had been impaled.

Crews were called to a youth wedged in an ironing board in Bromley, a person with their fingers stuck in a DVD player in Barking and several children with toilet seats and potties stuck on their heads.