An embarrassed BBC reporter struggled to finish his broadcast as he got high after getting too close to a stack of burning drugs.

Quentin Sommerville, the corporation's Middle East correspondent, posted a link to the video on his YouTube page today as a 'Christmas present' to his Twitter followers.

The video, which he called 'Don't inhale', shows the reporter stood next to a huge pile of heroin, opium and hashish, but as he tries to begin his report he can't help but giggle.

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Quentin Sommerville struggled to finish his broadcast without bursting into laughter as he tried to report beside a burning stack of drugs

He starts the report - filmed at some point in the last 12 months in the Middle East - by saying: ‘Burning behind me is eight and a half tonnes of heroin, opium, hashish and other narcotics.’

The reporter attempts to start his next line but lets out a tiny giggle, setting the cameraman off and both burst out laughing.

He then urges the cameraman to 'come on' and try another take, but this time he struggles to get out the whole sentence, managing just 'burning behind me'.

And the longer they stand there the harder it becomes as they both fall into fits of a laughter.

'Ssh, quick, we just need one more,' he tells the cameraman but this time his mouth just turns downwards and he can't even get the word out.

Quentin Sommerville starts the broadcast by saying 'behind me is eight and a half tonnes of heroin, opium, hashish and other narcotics'

But in the reporter's next breath he lets out a giggle and struggles to stop laughing as he inhales the smoke

In the final take Mr Sommerville just places his head in his hands, as he realises he can't manage the broadcast without becoming hysterical.

The journalist posted a link to the video, taken from his broadcasting outtakes over the last year, through his Twitter page earlier today as a 'Christmas present' to his fans.

He wrote: 'Dear tweeps, it's been a year of bullets & bloodshed. You've earned a xmas laugh, at my expense.'

The journalist, who is based in Jerusalem, has reported on several major issues in the Middle East since being deployed as a correspondent on the front line in 2012, including the Islamic State crisis.

In the video, titled 'Don't inhale', he attempts to give it another shot but finds himself bursting into laughter

The longer the reporter and cameraman stand there the harder it becomes as he struggles to even get his first line out in the final take