<b>By Phil Ward
Health Correspondent

A lovers' experiment that went terribly wrong led to two men being severely burnt and the death of their pet gerbil.

Alex Fletcher and his partner Benjamin Forrester had decided to liven up their evening by playing about with the gerbil and a cardboard tube.

"In hindsight lighting the match was my big mistake, but I was only trying to retrieve the gerbil," Fletcher told startled doctors at the accident and emergency unit at Ipswich hospital.

Fletcher and Forrester, both 29 and from Woodbridge in Suffolk, had been rushed to the hospital by ambulance after their kinky game literally exploded.

Fletcher told a hushed press conference: "I pushed a cardboard tube up Benjo's backside and then pushed Trevor -- our hamster -- inside. As usual, Trevor squeaked loudly 'Armageddon!, which was his cue when he had had enough. I tried to retrieve Trevor but he wouldn;t come out again so I peered into the tube and struck a match thinking the light might attract him."

At a hushed press conference, a hospital spokesman described what happened next. He said: "The match ignited a pocket of intestinal gas and flames shot out of the tube, igniting Mr Smith's hair and severely burning his face.

"It also set fire to the hamster;s fur and whiskers, which in turn ignited a larger pocket of gas further up the intestine - propelling the rodent out like a cannonball.

"Smith suiffered second degree burns and a broken nose frorm the impact of the stunned hamster, while Jones suffere first and second degree burns to his backside and lower intestinal tract.




* * * *

Like The Suffolk Gazette on Facebook now! <iframe style="border: none; overflow: hidden; height: 21px;" src="//www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsuffolkgazette&amp;width&amp;layout=button_count&amp;action=like&amp;show_faces=false&amp;share=true&amp;height=21" width="300" height="150" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

<a href="http://www.suffolkgazette.com/buy-us-a-beer/">Please support our running costs by clicking here and buying us a beer!</a>

<a href="http://www.suffolkgazette.com/wp-content/plugins/oiopub-direct/purchase.php" target="_blank">Advertise on the Suffolk Gazette - click here for (very cheap) rates</a>