Firefighters had to be called in to cut a ring off a man’s finger after hospital staff were defeated by its very hard steel.

The middle aged man tried on a Tunsten steel ring at a jeweller, in Epsom, but could not get it off and his finger swelled up.

A few days later, on November 29, he went to Epsom Hospital for help.

Staff there are used to dealing with gold and silver rings but the steel proved too much for them and firefighters had to be called in.

Even they had a struggle to cut it.

Watch manager Michael Orchard, at Epsom fire station, said the man’s finger was double the normal size and he was in a lot of discomfort.

Mr Orchard said: "We were called to A&E to assist because they had already tried their cutters.

"It was really, really hard and our cutters couldn’t cut it initially."