These guys have got to be hustlers...

Playing between a set of three balls on a carom table, South Korea's Hwang Deuk-hee prepares to shoot during the billiards three-cushion carom singles final against compatriot Lee Sang-chun at the 14th Asian Games in Pusan in this October 7, 2002 file photo. 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.

PRAGUE (Reuters) - 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."

(Reporting by Jan Lopatka)