Robot vacuum cleaner attacked Korean woman as she slept

A Korean woman was freed by emergency services after a robot vacuum cleaner went rogue and attacked her.

The unnamed woman, aged 52, was asleep when the machine struck.

The woman, from Changwon, in southeastern South Korea, awoke to find that the machine had sucked up two inches of her hair - and couldn't free herself.

She had to call the fire brigade with a 'desperate rescue plea'.

It took the efforts of two paramedics to free her from the cleaning device, which is believed to have been set on an automated 'patrol' of the house in the early hours of the morning.

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Robot vacuums first went on sale more than a decade ago, and are armed with sensors which (usually) instruct them to avoid obstacles.

The 'attack', which occurred on January 3, is one of the first cases of its kind.

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Robotic appliances are highly popular in South Korea, Korea Biz wire reported, observing that the risk of such 'attacks' is high in the country, due to homes where people commonly sleep near floor level.