JOHOR BARU (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A curious climb into a washing machine turned into an ordeal for a nine-year-old girl here on Saturday (May 25) when she got stuck in it.

It is understood that the girl was playing at a self-service launderette in Taman Larkin Perdana with her friends when the incident happened.

Larkin fire and rescue department operations officer Mohd Kamil Zulkifle said they received a call at 4.38pm.

"The girl climbed into the machine on her own before one of her friends shut the door of the machine.

"The incident was later noticed by a member of the public who wanted to use the machine," he said in a statement.

He added that rescue personnel took about three minutes to get the girl out of the machine by cutting the lock.

"She was not injured but was traumatised by the incident and ran home after being rescued," he said.