It took Ukrainian rescuers three hours to release a man whose arm got stuck in a toilet when he tried to retrieve money he had dropped, the ukranews.com portal said on Monday.

The 47-year-old tried to make a diving catch when his 200 hryvnias ($24) fell into a public toilet in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernigov. In his efforts to rescue his cash, he got his arm hopelessly stuck up to his elbow.

The emergency workers removed tiles, drilled the toilet out of concrete floor and cut the outlet pipe, but the man's arm remained trapped in the chute. Hydraulic shears and a plumber's torch were finally used to cut the man free.

The man was unharmed, although 200 hryvnias poorer, while the toilet was completely destroyed.

Rescuers around the world often have to release people who get stuck while trying to retrieve money, identification papers, mobile phones, jewelry and other valuables from toilets.

A year ago a high-speed TGV train in France was delayed for two hours when a man got his arm stuck down a toilet after dropping a cell phone, and this May a U.S. woman was trapped while trying to retrieve a gold tooth that had fallen into the toilet bowl.

Information from: RIA Novosti, http://en.rian.ru/

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