A man in the German city of Worms had his penis stuck in the hole of a 2.5kg gym weight plate on Friday (Sept 15), forcing firefighters to use power tools to free it.

The city's fire brigade posted an account of the incident on its Facebook page, accompanied by a photo of the weight plate broken into five pieces.

It was called in to help after doctors at a local hospital was unable to remove the plate, German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.

The man had to be sedated before firefighters, using angle grinders and a hydraulic rescue device, succeeded in breaking the plate.

The entire rescue effort took three hours.

In its Facebook post, the fire brigade also advised the public not to "imitate such actions".

It was not clear what exercise the man was doing that landed him in the predicament.