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Paramedics found the 22-year-old bleeding, with a Black Cat Thunderbolt Rocket lodged inside him, when they attended the scene in Sunderland.

He suffered a scorched colon and is now recovering in hospital, where his condition is described as stable.

A spokesman for the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) said the prank could have been fatal.

Douglas McDougal, from the NEAS, said: “We received a call stating there was a male who had a firework in his bottom and it was bleeding.

“He sustained fairly significant injuries in the fact that there’s huge damage to that particular area.”

“There’s a lot of major blood vessels round that area, so infection would probably be a huge problem for him.

“And also the body naturally produces methane gas, so combine that with the firework and the exploding effect with methane’s flammability – it certainly could have been a lot worse than it really was.”

A spokesman for the Firework Association described the bizarre prank as “beyond belief”.

A while back I came across a video of a “Firework Man”, who lit real, full fireworks and let them blow on his stomach, hand, face, etc. I couldn’t find that particular clip again, but I found another – a guy lighting firecrackers strapped to him. Definitely something I want to try before I die. No, not lighting fireworks in my face, or strapping a case of firecrackers around my stomach, but maybe letting a single firecracker blow on my stomach.