A 71-year-old virgin has told how he is so terrified of women that he barricaded himself in his house 55 years ago.

Oddball Callitxe Nzamwita, from Rwanda, locked himself in his home aged just 16 to avoid all female company.

And just to make sure they got the message, he built a 15-foot fence around his home so none of them could ever get in, according to South African media.

He explained: “The reason I locked myself inside here and have a fence on my house is because I want to make sure that women will not come closer to me.”

Callitxe told how they make him “really scared”.

One unnamed female neighbour said she had barely seen him leave the property since he was a child.

But despite his terror, local women are the only neighbours who help him survive.

She explained: “Strangely, even though he fears women, we are the ones who help him get food and some things he needs.

“When you try to help him, he doesn’t want us to come close or talk to him.

“Instead, we give him things by tossing them into his house, and then he comes and picks them up.

“He doesn’t let us get close to him, but he still takes what we offer from a distance.”

Neighbours said that whenever he sees a woman close to his compound, the hardened bachelor runs inside his house and locks himself in.

Callitxe is understood to be suffering from a psychological condition called gynophobia, an irrational fear of women.

Symptoms of gynophobia can include an overwhelming fear of women that can be triggered even by just thinking about them.

The condition comes with anxiety and problems carrying out day-to-day activities due to fear.

Sufferers are likely to get panic attacks, tightness in the chest, profuse sweating, a rapid heartbeat, and experience difficulty breathing.

Other symptoms include an upset stomach and feeling faint when near or thinking about women.