<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.</b>

Alex Fletcher-Jones and his partner Benjamin Selfridge 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 poor gerbil," Mr Fletcher-Jones told startled doctors at the accident and emergency unit at Ipswich hospital.

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

Beer salesman Mr Fletcher-Jones added: "I pushed a cardboard tube up Benjo's behind and then shoved Trevor -- our gerbil -- inside. After a while 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."

<center><a href="http://www.suffolkgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/gerbil-tube.jpg"><img src="http://www.suffolkgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/gerbil-tube.jpg" alt="gerbil-tube" width="400" height="283" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1936" /></a></center><center><i>Not so clever, Trevor</center></i><br><br>

At a hushed press conference last night, 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 Fletcher-Jones' hair and severely burning his face.

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

"Mr Fletcher-Jones suffered second-degree burns and a broken nose from the impact of the stunned gerbil, while Mr Selfridge suffered first and second-degree burns to his backside and lower intestinal tract.

"Both men are recovering well - but I'm afraid Trevor didn't make it."

The hospital spokesman added: "Perhaps this is a good lesson for people not to experiment too much in the privacy of their own home - and gerbils are certainly better off running about on their wheel in a cage."

Mr Selfridge, a shopkeeper, and Mr Fletcher-Jones refused to comment further to the Suffolk Gazette today. A number of flowers and tributes to Trevor had been placed carefully outside their house by wellwishers.

One moving note read: "Poor Trevor. What a terrible way to go. Rest in Peace."

Observers said the incident is more or a less a mirror image of a similar event in America, which made this radio presenter collapse into fits of laughter. Enjoy... 

<center><iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3_Jt_g10Jug" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br><br>

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