Teenager stuck in chimney suffers serious burns

A German teenager who slithered down a chimney and became stuck was in hospital with critical burns on Monday.

Police said the boy, 16, climbed on the roof of a locked school late Sunday with a friend, 14, to warm his hands over the flue. He then decided to warm his feet too, but inadvertently fell into the 40-centimetre-square opening and lodged in a bend six metres below.

Fire-fighters from the city of Darmstadt disconnected the furnace and demolished the chimney from below to extricate him. Police said he suffered burns and inhaled toxic fumes and was in a special clinic in critical condition.