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A cleaning robot 'committed suicide' by climbing on to a kitchen hotplate where it was burned to death.

According to local reports, the Irobot Roomba 760 robot is thought to have rebelled against its chores and decided enough was enough.

Firemen were called to the blaze at Hinterstoder in Kirchdorf, Austria, and say they found the remains of the machine on the hotplate.

Fireman Helmut Kniewasser said: "The home-owner had put the small robot on the work surface to clean up some spilled cereal.

"Once the robot had done its job it was switched off but left on the kitchen sideboard. The 44-year-old house owner together with his wife and son then left the house and were not home when the robot set off.

"Somehow it seems to have reactivated itself and made its way along the work surface where it pushed a cooking pot out of the way and basically that was the end of it."

He added: "It pretty quickly started to melt underneath and then stuck to the kitchen hotplate. It then caught fire. By the time we arrived, it was just a pile of ash.

"The entire building had to be evacuated and there was severe smoke damage particularly in the flat where the robot had been in use.

"I don't know about the allegations of a robot suicide but the homeowner is insistent that the device was switched off – it's a mystery how it came to be activated and ended up making its way to the hotplate."

The family are now reportedly homeless because their apartment is no longer habitable thanks to the smoke damage.

Homeowner Gernot Hackl, 44, said: "I intend to sue to get compensation. It has ruined my home as everything is smoke damaged.

"Everything is black. It's not possible to live here at the moment. I would never buy one again, you buy them to keep the place clean, not almost burn it down and ruin everything."