The Comedy Terrorist's Fringe show was yesterday hijacked by three publicity-seeking comics..

The inevitable stunt came as Aaron Barschak returned to the stage of the Underbelly venue after cancelling his first official performance of Osama Likes It Hot because of exhaustion.

The trio burst onto the stage halfway through his show, bound and gagged him and read out a spoof statement on behalf of the "Real Comedy Alliance".

David Hadingham, Anvil Springstien and Ian Fox-Marrs said their invasion was "a vain and quite frankly pathetic attempt to garner publicity for our purile but nevertheless very funny shows".

Springstien said: "He turned out to be a really nice guy, even complimenting my show before we gagged him. It's just a pity we couldn't locate this evidence beforehand."

Hadingham said: "Hats off to him, he's got his publicity at least. But at the end of the day, what's good for the goose is good for the gander - and may I suggest people have a gander at my show."

The trio are all performing at the Fringe's new venue, The Pod.