An adorable toddler had to be rescued after clmbing inside a claw machine - but he was delighted by the predicament. 

Two-year-old Cooper King and his mom Meg were at a sports arena in Webster Groves, St Louis last weekend to watch his brother play soccer.

But Cooper was more interested in the claw machine - and somehow ended up inside it.

'Anyone who knows my son Cooper, they would totally understand that he would do something like this,' mom Meg told First Alert 4.

'I literally glanced over there, he was pretend playing with the claw machine. I looked away for maybe 15 seconds.'

Concerned onlookers called out to alert her but Meg remained calm as she saw Cooper had a huge smile on his face.   

'He's laughing, throwing balls everywhere,' she said. 

Police officers arrived at the scene to try and coax Cooper out, but he was having the time of his life throwing balls around and refused to leave.

Meg said she yelled out to Cooper and tried to encourage him to crawl back down the way he came.

However the toddler shook his head and kept playing.

Police officers and the fire department tried their best but failed to get Cooper out - while also laughing at the situation and asking Meg if they could take pictures.

Eventually a machine operator arrived with a key to open the machine and free Cooper.

The toddler had spent about 20 minutes inside the machine.

Delighted onlookers snapped pictures of Cooper while he was inside the machine, and those images have since gone viral on social media.

'I didn't think it was going to go this big,' Meg said.

One of the comments from online fans that caught Meg's attention was a viewer asking why she didn't use the claw to pry Cooper out.

'I was going to comment back that I didn't have enough change since he used it all,' she said.

'In today's world  everyone needs something funny... and what's not funny about a two-year-old playing in a claw machine.'