Firefighters are urging people to be careful with jewellery after a man had to visit a hospital and two fire stations during a four-hour escapade to remove a tight steel ring from his finger.

The 24-year-old had the 12mm ring removed by Cleckheaton firefighters, who had spent an hour working on it, at 1.10am yesterday. Watch commander Damian Cameron said it was one of the toughest rings they had dealt with.

The man and a friend went to the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary without success.

The man was taken to Bradford Fire Station, but its tools could not remove the ring, so he was taken to Cleckheaton, where the fire service’s Technical Rescue Unit is based.

Firefighters there used an oscillating saw to split the ring. Mr Cameron said the man, from Quarmby, Huddersfield, was in pain and bleeding, but in good spirits when he was freed.