A Frenchman caused a two-hour train delay when he got his arm stuck down a toilet.

The man had to be cut free after putting his arm down the toilet in a bid to retrieve something he thought he had swallowed, he would not say what, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The 26-year-old passenger's arm became trapped up to the shoulder by the powerful suction flushing system on board the high-speed TGV train from Paris to La Rochelle.

Firefighters took more than an hour to free the man, before lifting him from the train on a stretcher with the entire toilet still stuck to his arm.

A fire spokesman said: "He was cut free from the toilet on the platform and apart from suffering bruising and smelling a bit, he suffered no other injuries."