PARENTS are being warned of a new playground "craze" after a 12-year-old boy nearly died from swallowing ball bearings.

Yorkshire schoolboy Freddie Webster had to undergo life-saving surgery after the tiny magnetic balls ripped a hole in his stomach over the course of five days.

3 Freddie Webster underwent life-saving surgery after swallowing four ball-bearings Credit: Cascade News

Freddie had swallowed the 3mm balls as part of a "game" with friends where he tested magnetic pull by putting a magnet inside one cheek and outside another.

And just five hours later he had managed to swallow a second pair of the whiteboard and fridge magnets.

Three days later that his stomach ache complaints led him to hospital, where surgeons were forced to remove 10cm of his bowel in an operation lasting four-and-a-half hours.

The schoolboy at Driffield School & Sixth Form in east Yorkshire spent eight days recovering at hospital and is still only able to attend school in the mornings.

3 An x-ray clearly showing the four ball bearings, which had ripped a huge hole in Freddie's stomach Credit: Cascade News

3 Freddie and Sarah Webster after Freddie's life-saving operation Credit: Cascade News

Roland Earl, Director General of the British Toy and Hobby Association, warned parents of the "terribly dangerous" nature of such games.

"The dangers of perforation in the intestines are very real and very dangerous," he told Sun Online.

"Immediate hospital assistance should be sought if magnets are known to have been swallowed.

"If this is some sort of craze this is terribly dangerous and children and young people should be warned not to ingest magnetic items."

Freddie's case is the fourth the hospital has seen since November, paediatric consultant Marcin Kazmierski told the family.

All four involved boys of a similar age to Freddie in cases that could be “potentially fatal”, she said.

Freddie is now in recovery, but admits he is worried this could happen to other children.

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“I feel cautious about what I can do after the operation," he said.

“I think these magnets should be banned in every country.

"I know a lot of people who have them and they put them in their mouths, noses and even in their eyelids."

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