Two Czechs stuck in a billiard table  while searching for a ball had to call the fire squad and were freed only when rescuers took the table apart, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

At first, the two players in the western Czech city of  Karlovy Vary thought it was funny when both of their hands became trapped inside the table. But panic struck when they  could not free themselves, daily Lidove Noviny reported.

"Their trapped hands hurt them quite a bit," a fire brigade  spokesman said. "We have no clue at all how they could become  stuck in there. In the end we had no other option but to  dismantle the entire table."