A toddler who got his finger stuck in a sink plughole spent two hours in hospital as medics struggled to free him.

Amos Fish, 18 months, of Prestonville Road, Brighton, put his finger into the plughole but could not pull it out again.

His father Paul called the fire brigade after his own efforts to free his son failed and the youngster's finger began to turn blue.

He said: "I don't know why he did it. He had just had his bath and decided to put his finger down the plug. We unscrewed the plug from the bath but his finger was really badly swollen.

Firefighters cut the sink plug out but still could not free Amos's finger, so they called an ambulance and handed Amos over to medical experts.

Doctors at Brighton General Hospital first gave Amos a sedative in an attempt to relax him.

At one stage they feared they would have to operate on Amos's swollen finger to free him, but they decided to call the fire brigade back in a last-ditch attempt to cut the plug off.

The crew from Brighton fire station came to Amos's rescue again and arrived at the hospital armed with saws, clippers and an array of cutters.

The firefighters came up with a plan to free him but it was 9.20pm by the time they removed the plug grid.

Leading Firefighter Brin Powell said: "It was a bit rough for Amos. His finger was stuck through one of the little holes and was swollen quite badly.

"In the end, after numerous attempts with metal cutters and junior hacksaw blades and because we didn't want to cut his finger, we decided to use a suture cord.

"We tied the cord round his finger and eased it through, and bit by bit we squashed the swelling and gently pulled the plug away."