UK 11-year-old boy the latest victim of idiotic 'fire challenge'

Dangerous is only one way to describe a so-called craze in which teens douse themselves in flammable liquid and proceed to light themselves on fire for the benefit of the under-18 YouTube community.

This act of wanton stupidity has been doing the rounds for a while – indeed, aerosol cans and cigarette lighters are standard teen apparatus – but the "fire challenge" is back in the news today for predictable but lamentable reasons.

An 11-year-old boy in the UK was rushed to hospital where he underwent emergency surgery after his attempt at the stunt went badly wrong.

The youngster from Barnetby, Lincolnshire, was rushed to Sheffield Children's Hospital after he torched himself in his room, apparently after his schoolmates dared him to.

"He said that he had lit his shirt once and managed to put it out, but when he lit the burnt area again, his shirt just went up in flames," the boy's mother, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Daily Mail.

"He is never in trouble. He is a brilliant little boy and I thought he had the brains not to do something like this."

This latest incident has prompted authorities to warn people not to try the stunt, which apart from being abjectly moronic also wastes emergency services' time.