YouTube prankster who cemented his head in microwave offers to pay fine for stunt

A YouTube prankster who cemented his head in a microwave has offered to pay the fire service the £650 it cost to free him.

Jay Swingler put his head in a plastic bag inside the microwave, before his friends poured seven bags of Polyfilla inside.

However, the prank went dangerously wrong when the 22-year-old became trapped, and after trying to free him for 90 minutes, his friends called the emergency services to the address in Fordhouses, Wolverhampton on Thursday afternoon.

After paramedics were unable to help, West Midlands Fire Service was called, and five firefighters spent almost an hour freeing him at a cost of £650.

Swingler later tweeted that he had been left traumatised by the ordeal and realises he was "very lucky to be alive".

However, he has faced widespread criticism for wasting the time of the emergency crews. One commentator remarked: "What frustrates me the most is that the time paramedics have spent with you may had affected someone's else survival,"

Another said: "Do the right thing and give (West Midlands Fire Service) the money".

In a video posted on Friday, he said he was "in need and would have died without (firefighters)", but agreed he should be fined for the stunt.

"I'm more than happy to donate my money to the people who helped me that day," he said. "I should be fined just like the people who get into drunken fights and use the emergency services' time."

West Midlands Fire Service said it was "seriously unimpressed" with the stunt.

"As funny as this sounds, this young man could quite easily have suffocated or have been seriously injured," Watch Commander Shuan Dakin, officer in charge of the crew who responded, told Sky News.

"All of the group involved were very apologetic, but this was clearly a call-out which might have prevented us from helping someone else in genuine, accidental need."