FIREFIGHTERS came to the rescue after a two-year-old boy got a toilet seat stuck on his head.

A crew from Stranton Fire Station was called to a house in Collingwood Road, Hartlepool, to help the young boy who had somehow managed to trap his head in the toilet trainer seat.

A fire chief described the incident as one of the oddest he had seen in his 20 years service.

The crew was called to the house at around 11am on Friday to a report that the child's head was trapped.

Firefighters cut off the seat from the child's head with bolt croppers after his parents had tried in vain to move it before it caught on his ears.

Watch manager Ian Brown said: "The child had got the toilet trainer seat stuck on his head while play.

"His parents couldn't pull it off because it was catching his ear."

Mr Brown said the child was initially distressed. But once his parents turned on the TV he was kept pre-occupied while firefighters set to work.

He added: "It is definitely one of the more unusual things I have seen in my 20 years' experience, apart from having to cut off a ball and chain on a stag night in Scarborough."