A Polish man has burnt the side of his head while doing housework after mistaking the iron for a phone.

Tomasz Paczkowski, from the northern Polish town of Elblag, is now swathed in bandages after his wife asked him to help with the housework while he enjoyed a few days off work.

"My wife had gone to work," the 32-year old told the Polish newspaper Fakt. "After breakfast I started to work. I turned on the boxing channel on the TV, opened a beer and started ironing.

"I was really getting involved in the boxing and was not really thinking about what I was doing.

"Suddenly the phone rang and I mucked things up.