Firefighters try to rescue a woman at her house in Changwon, southeast South Korea, on Feb. 3, 2015, after her hair was sucked into a robot vacuum cleaner. She lost about 10 strands of hair but was not injured. Photo by Yonhap

CHANGWON, South Korea, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Emergency responders in a South Korean city were called to rescue a woman whose robot vacuum cleaner latched onto her hair while she was taking a nap.

The Changwon city fire department said workers responded to the 52-year-old woman's Changwon home after the robot vacuum cleaner latched onto her hair while she was sleeping on the floor.


The emergency responders were able to open the vacuum and free the woman after about 30 minutes, the fire department said.

"This case was quite special," a fire department representative said. "We had seen weird things, but this was a very weird call that we received."

The fire department said the woman lost about 10 strands of hair, but was otherwise unharmed.

The device appears to be similar to the Roomba, a circular robotic vacuum cleaner that has sold more than 10 million units since hitting the market in 2002.