A man who could be one of Tooting’s dumbest criminals was caught red-handed after a car fell on his hands, trapping him, while it is believed he was trying to steal its wheels.

Emergency services responded to reports of an injured man screaming for help on Franciscan Road in Tooting in the early hours of Friday morning.

The man had failed to jack an abandoned Audi properly and his hand became trapped between the wheel and the wheel arch when it collapsed, a Wimbledon firefighter said.

A Met Police spokesman said he suffered a "serious injury" to his hand.

The man was not arrested. Police officers have not been able to find the car’s owner.

After being freed by firefighters the man, 33, was taken to a south London hospital.

A firefighter who attended said: “He won’t try to steal wheels again, will he?”

Amanda Taylor-Purchase, who lives on Franciscan Road, said she woke at 2.30am to the sounds of a man shouting intermittently for help.

She said: “I couldn’t see him at first but it sounded like he was in a lot of pain.

“He was trapped for quite a while – maybe half an hour – with his hand between the wheel and the car itself after it collapsed on top of him.

“He was bellowing out for help. It sounded like someone in quite a lot of trouble.

“It appears the idiot wheel thief has had the car collapse on his hands after trying to get the wheel off and got himself stuck.

“They eventually took him off in an ambulance.”