Firefighters have freed a Chinese toddler after he managed to get his head wedged in a balcony balustrade in Guizhou province.

The boy stuck his head in the hole whilst playing with other children on the stairway of a local government building, and was unable to remove it.

As crowds gathered, firefighters tried to manoeuvre the child's head back through the hole.

When that failed, they had to use hydraulic jaws of life to crack open the stone wall, freeing the boy who had no serious injuries.