Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service (TWFRS) has issued an urgent warning over a recent TikTok trend - which has led to a growing number of teens finding themselves stuck in children's swings.
The social media trend has seen older children attempt to force themselves into toddler swing sets before being filmed trying to exit them.
But on some occasions, when they find themselves trapped, they have no choice but to call the fire service for assistance. TWFRS revealed that they have responded to 35 incidents of people being stuck in swings since April.
This figure is already more than double the 14 cases they saw in the entire year dating back to March 2022. Other fire services have reported similar incidents thanks to the new TikTok challenge.
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Station manager Jonathan Ramanayake, of TWFRS’s Prevention and Education Department, said: "These kind of rescues are no laughing matter. Young people may find it funny that the fire service is responding to these type of incidents but it is a serious waste of emergency service resource.
"If our crews are already in attendance at an incident of this nature, and a genuine life-at-risk emergency occurs, their response will be delayed. In a fire or rescue every second counts and we would ask these young people if 30 seconds of fame on social media is worth a life?
"Would they be comfortable knowing the fire service was delayed in getting to a fire at their home because their friend was stuck in a swing set? Not only does it hinder our response, but it robs a community of a swing set if we need to remove the swing to free the trapped individual. That is simply not fair.
"Children as old as 15 have been rescued in these incidents and all of those rescued are old enough to know their behaviour is irresponsible. We regularly attend schools to deliver safety talks and this advice will feature in those lessons and we would ask parents and guardians to do the same."
It is thought that the craze first emerged back in 2021 - when the TWFRS recorded 29 rescues from toddler swing sets. However, fire officers in the region are concerned that the trend has seemingly re-emerged, citing how it could divert resources from genuine emergencies.
A full breakdown of incidents across Tyne and Wear is as follows:
District | 2020/2021 | 2021/2022 | 2022/2023 | 2023/2024 | Total |
GATESHEAD | 1 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 14 |
NEWCASTLE | 2 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 17 |
NORTH TYNESIDE | 0 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 20 |
SOUTH TYNESIDE | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 11 |
SUNDERLAND | 7 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 29 |
Total | 13 | 29 | 14 | 35 | 91 |
Those rescued are aged between nine and 15, and none of those involved suffered any injuries. In the majority of cases, the children were freed from the swing set without the need to damage the swings - by simply lifting the person out of the set.
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