Drunk Russian gets stuck in vent shaft, loses clothes in rescue.

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Facepalm.

A drunkard had to be rescued buttocks-first after he followed the smell of beetroot soup down a ventilation shaft.

Onlookers posted footage of the bizarre rescue online after firefighters used sledgehammers to smash through the wall of an apartment block stairwell in Barnaul, Russia.

According to reports, the 31-year-old was a homeless man who crawled head-first down a 16-inch wide chimney on Valentine's Day to chase the irresistible aroma of borscht.

Tenants in the town, near the Kazakh border, told LifeNews the lock on an attic apartment was broken and the man's neatly-folded clothes and shoes were left next to the top of the shaft.

The story goes on to say that the man's trousers came out during the rescue, leaving his rear end hanging out for all to see.