toilet visit goes off with a bang

NOTE to self: never play with a cigarette lighter on the toilet - particularly after spraying the room with air freshener.

For 13-year-old German schoolboy Dennis Bueller, it's a lesson he won't forget.

The Recklinghausen lad was blasted out of the window of his bathroom from the fireball created by his dad's lighter which ignited the air freshener he had sprayed moments earlier.

"I began fiddling with a lighter my dad left in there and suddenly there was this big orange whoosh! of flame. I woke up outside with my clothes burned off me and smelling like a barbecue," Bueller said.

Bueller suffered burns to his face, arms, legs and upper body and will require months of treatment. He will need months of care.

Dad Artur, 31, said: "He said the downstairs loo smelled but I think he realises he was a bit dim in playing with a lighter."