Searching for lighters while drunk can land you in a hole!

London, June 28 : A young British man managed to get himself stuck in a hole in the pavement while he was trying to retrieve his cigarette lighter, which he had accidentally dropped into the same opening.

The sozzled bloke - who didn't give his name- spent the next two hours stuck in the hole dug for a new lamppost.

Passers-by failed to budge him, so he had to be pulled out by firefighters in Swansea, Wales.

To make matters worse, 100 giggling shoppers looked on, filming his embarrassment on phone cameras.

"He was wedged in so tight we'd have pulled his arms out of their sockets if we'd pulled any harder. He was stuck fast, right up to his chest," The Sun quoted an onlooker, as saying.

"We were all stood around this unfortunate man in the hole having a right old laugh. The man said he'd gone in feet first to retrieve a lighter he'd dropped in the hole and got stuck. He'd had a few to drink. He was in a terrible state.

"Even though it was mid-morning, I'd say he'd been drinking all through the night. He still had a can of lager in his hand. God knows how he even managed to squeeze in the hole because it was only 30cm in diameter.

"Once the firemen arrived, they strapped a rope round him, beneath his armpits, and winched him out," the onlooker added.

A fire service spokesman said: "We used a winch to pull him out."

ANI