Firefighters had to use hydraulic spreading pliers to rescue a boy in southwest China after he got his head stuck in between two stone pillars on a balcony.

China's state television, CCTV, said the boy lodged his head in the hole while playing with other children on a stairway of a local government building in Hezhang county in Guizhou.

The boy was upset, but not injured.

Karin Giannone reports.