London mayor Boris Johnson is known for his eccentric methods and publicity stunts, but even he couldn't have planned his latest moment of fame.

Johnson has been caught on video by a UK newspaper hanging 20 metres above the ground after getting stuck on a zip-wire in a park near the Olympic precinct.

After taking off to the sound of loud applause and cheers, Johnson was inevitably greeted with laughter when he came to a halt and dangled over a crowd of onlookers - which naturally grew rapidly when word spread that the man in charge of the Olympic city was stuck on a zip-wire.

Johnson was clearly uncomfortable as the safety harness pulled up the pants on his suit, but luckily the London mayor has experience in awkward situations and dealt with it in a lighthearted manner.

"Can you get me a rope?” Johnson asked the crowd of amused onlookers.

"I think they needed to test this on somebody going a bit faster."

British prime minister David Cameron commented later in the day that only Johnson could make such an embarrassing incident work in his favour.

"If any other politician anywhere in the world was stuck on a zip-wire it would be a disaster. For Boris, it’s an absolute triumph," Cameron said.

For the record, Johnson was eventually taken safely to the end of the line and strongly recommended the ride to anyone that would listen, although he did have one tip for the owners of the ride.

"I think possibly what had happened was that they left a brake on or something," he said.

Speaking later to London radio station LBC, he described himself as "the Yuri Gagarin of the zipwire", in reference to the Soviet cosmonaut who was the first person to venture into outer space.

A spokeswoman for Mr Johnson said: "Clearly the judges are likely to mark him down for artistic interpretation, and, unlike Team GB, he won't be bagging any gold medals today but he remains unbowed."

(Read by Rosie Tuck. Rosie Tuck is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)