Seven professional rugby players had to be rescued when they got stuck in a hotel lift because they broke the weight limit.
The Sale Sharks stars, included Wales’ all-time great scrum half Mike Phillips, South African prop Brian Mujati and Samoan centre Johnny Leota, spent an hour and a quarter trapped inside the lift because at 755kg they were more than 120kg above the maximum weight limit.
Fire crew and an engineer were called out to the lift at the Hilton hotel in Bath, Somerset. South African Mujati managed to film the drama on his mobile phone and at one point one of the players was forced to use an empty bottle to pee in!
One is recorded saying: “This is nobody’s fault but our own because we’ve overloaded the thing.”
The six were eventually freed around 2.50pm on Saturday October 7 – in plenty of time before their game against Bath at 7.45 in the evening.
Avon Fire and Rescue Service said: “We received a call at 1.35pm to reports of seven people trapped in a lift between the ground and first floor.
“It was the Hilton Bath city hotel on Walcot Street. We had an engineer in attendance and they were released at 2.50pm.”