Going to the toilet is a fairly simple task for most people – that is, until you get locked in.

The London Fire Brigade is called out twice a day to bathroom-related trappings across the capital, new figures have revealed.

In Newham, firefighters have been called out 145 times since 2011.

A brigade spokesman said: “It’s embarrassing getting locked inside a toilet but the vast majority of the call outs are not emergencies and we’d like to wash our hands of these incidents, freeing up more time for our crews to assist people in real need of assistance.”

From the call logs, it seems age is no barrier to getting trapped in a toilet – while there are a lot of reports of children being locked in, on several occasions elderly people have also become stuck.

Earlier this year the borough’s firefighters were even called to a child with their head stuck in a toilet training seat.