SINGAPORE - An 82-year-old man, who accidentally trapped his arm in a water pipe in his toilet, waited for more than 12 hours before he was rescued.

Neighbours heard the man, who they say lives alone, calling out at around 2am on Sunday but could not decipher what he was saying. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) only got a call alerting them to the incident later that day at around noon.

When they arrived at the man's Bedok North flat, SCDF rescuers found his arm trapped in the pipe up to his shoulder.

The officers first tried to use a lubricant to ease the man's arm out but were unsuccessful. They then attempted to access the pipe from the unit directly below his flat by breaking the pipe and surrounding concrete to extract the man's arm.

At about 3pm, the man was rescued and he was brought to Changi General Hospital for treatment.

Family members declined to speak to the media, but The Straits Times understands that the man had dropped something down the pipe and was trying to retrieve it when his arm got stuck.