LONDON - A man who had his head cemented inside a microwave by his friends had to be rescued by firefighters after the prank nearly went wrong.

It took a crew from the West Midlands Fire Service one hour to pull apart the microwave and remove the cement after they were called to a house in Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, reported the BBC. The firefighters were called after the 22-year-old man's friends failed to set him free despite trying for an hour-and-a-half.

"He and a group of friends had mixed seven bags of Polyfilla which they then poured around his head, which was protected by a plastic bag inside the microwave," said watch commander Shaun Dakin.

"The oven was being used as a mould, and wasn't plugged in. The mixture quickly set hard and, by the time we were called, they'd already been trying to free him for an hour-and-a-half."

Luckily, the man's friend's had managed to feed an air tube into the man's mouth, through which he was able to breathe.

"As funny as this sounds, this young man could quite easily have suffocated or have been seriously injured," said watch commander Dakin.

Five firefighters were involved in the rescue operation. "Taking the microwave apart was tricky, because a lot of it was welded. We video-called our technical rescue colleagues for advice and eventually managed to get him unstuck," said watch commander Dakin.

"He was very relieved when we removed a large chunk of the Polyfilla with a screwdriver, allowing him to breathe more easily. But we had to be extremely careful with the screwdriver, working so closely to his head."

After the man was rescued, the group involved in the stunt were very apologetic. But the watch commander was unimpressed.

"This was clearly a call-out which might have prevented us from helping someone else in genuine, accidental need," he said.