Boy rescued from airtight bank safe

A dramatic battle to free a trapped eight-year-old Turkish boy from an airtight bank safe has been captured on camera.

Watched by scores of onlookers, fire officers in Istanbul used a sledgehammer and electric saw to free Cihan Sevinc.

The youngster had found the disused unit while playing in a footpath in Istanbul with friends. It had been left outside a safe shop, whose owner was away on holiday.

Unaware of the danger it posed Cihan climbed into the safe, his companions shutting the door behind him as a joke. One alarmed passer by who saw what had happened called the fire brigade. "I saw the children playing. Then they put the boy in the vault and closed the door. I rushed and called the police," the witness said.

To see video of rescue.