School teacher John Gueran, who is 42, became trapped in his kitchen cupboard after he went looking for his son's walkie-talkie.

His nine-year-old son David hid the Christmas present in a one foot-wide floor cupboard. But it slipped from the shelf and fell down behind it so he called for his father to help to retrieve it.

As he stretched to reach it, Mr Gueran became stuck and felt faint - his body was so tightly wedged that it blocked the air flow into the cupboard.

His 17-year-old daughter, Christina, had a brainwave. She found a fan to pump fresh air into the cupboard through a small gap.

Bottom in the air

When the fire brigade arrived at the Gueran home in Gosport, Hampshire, they found Mr Gueran's bottom sticking into the air. They managed to supress their mirth and dismantled the unit.

"My right arm was trapped and I could not move," said a red-faced Mr Gueran. "My body blocked the air and I had real trouble breathing. It was only when my daughter used the fan that I felt OK again."

His wife Helen praised the fire service.

"The fire brigade were very good - they could have burst out laughing when they came in but somehow managed to stop themselves," she said.

"When they had freed my husband we all then had a good laugh, but only after the ambulance staff had checked him over and said he was fine."