Little Ben Linton got more than he bargained for when he stuck his arm in a toy vending machine and had to be rescued by firefighters.

The sticky incident took place at the Brewers Fayre pub in West Cepen Way in Chippenham in October.

Mum Kate, of Broomfield, was dropping off her middle son Jamie, four, at a friend’s birthday party when her adventurous two-and-half year old toddled off to the toy machine.

Mrs Linton, who also has a six year old son called Matthew, said she realised something was wrong when she heard Ben crying.

She said: “I was just chatting to my friend for a few minutes when all of a sudden I heard this crying, and you always know when it’s your child crying. “I was in a right state.

“We tried for about 20 minutes to free Ben ourselves but his arm was right inside the machine and his two fingers were stuck.

“He had got himself so firmly stuck that I just gave up and said that we need to call the fire brigade.

“I felt so bad because there was the party going on at the same time.”

Just two weeks earlier Ben had fallen from a slide and fractured his left arm, which was in plaster cast at the time.

Mrs Linton said: “I wouldn’t say he is particularly mischievous, he is just a typical boy.

“He cried for a good hour and a half and then he just exhausted himself so much he fell asleep on my lap.

“He’s only little, and he just wanted to be cuddled.

“He got his toy at the end of it all though.”

Mrs Linton praised the paramedics and fire crews who attended the scene on that Saturday afternoon.

She said: “Ben only had a couple of marks on his fingers, but the paramedics said if his fingers had started to turn blue they would have to break his arm to get it out.

“The firemen were just fantastic, they were there for quite a long time cutting everything up and keeping people away so that Ben didn’t get scared.

“When I told my husband Robert he thought it was funny. I can laugh at it now looking back, but at the time I was so scared.”

Watch manager Steve Lodge from Chippenham fire station attended the scene on October 17.

He said: “His hand was in the shoot that turns the toys out and his fingers were caught on the inside so we had to dismantle the machine bit by bit.

“We pulled it all apart until we could get to his fingers and release his hand using lubricant.”

Mr Lodge said that, although the fire service is often called out to rescue people who have got themselves into sticky situations, this particular incident was very rare.

“We haven’t had many children stuck in vending machines for a while,” he said.

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