A TEENAGE prank turned into an emergency call out when a 17-year-old got wedged inside a Newport monument at 6am.

Firefighters took half an hour to free the boy from an old train engine which stands outside the Riverfront theatre on Tuesday morning.

Crew members found him dangling from a porthole after two friends, aged 16, bet him £10 he could fit through it.

But he only got as far as his hips before he got stuck and the other boys called South Wales Fire and Rescue Service to get him out.

Seven rescuers took an engine from Malpas Fire Station and a special rescue vehicle from Lliswerry expecting to cut him out.

But in the end several metal brackets fixed in place to protect the public from the hole’s uneven edges were simply unscrewed, and the boy was freed.

Rick Evans, 44, Blue watch manager at Malpas, said: “They had just been wandering the streets all night and got bored. It was a bit bizarre, we get people locked in their bathrooms but actually getting stuck in a porthole is a bit obscure.”