Toddler stuck in claw machine

BRISBANE, Australia (AP):

Australian police came to the aid of a three-year-old boy after he became trapped inside a claw machine at a suburban shopping mall.

Video of the unusual rescue last Saturday was shared on social media by Queensland Police. It showed the toddler sitting inside the glass-walled box filled with plush toys, blissfully unaware of his predicament.

The boy's father, Timothy Hopper, said his son had disappeared into the claw machine's prize dispenser and inside it in a "split second".

"I had zero chance to react to it, it was unbelievable how fast he climbed up there," the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported Hopper as saying.

The video then shows the officers and the boy's parents encouraging him into a safe corner at the back of the machine, and to cover his eyes while the police shatter a glass panel to free him unharmed.

The video ends with one of the officers joking with the boy, "You won a prize. Which one do you want?"