These images show a woman having a fishhook removed from her eyelid after a fisherman caught her on the end of his line instead of a fish.

The woman had apparently been standing too close to the spot where the man was casting from, with the hook luckily missing her eyeball by millimetres.

The incident took place in the coastal city of Shenzhen, which is located in Guangdong province, in south-eastern China, on Boxing Day (26th December).

The young woman, who has not been named, was reportedly watching some riverside fishing when she apparently got too close and a fish hook got stuck in her eyelid after a fisherman attempted to cast his line out, according to local media.

In fishing, casting is the action of throwing the bait out into the water on the end of a fishing line. To do that, the angler will usually flick the rod back behind them before flicking the line forwards into the water.

The young woman was taken to hospital, where a doctor, who has been named as Dr Qiu Wangjian in local reports, said that she had fortunately been spared any serious damage. He said that the fishhook did not completely pierce through her eyelid, sparing her eyeball and cornea.

The simple operation was somewhat delicate because of the barb at the end of the hook, which is designed to make it difficult for a fish to wriggle free once it has been caught.

The doctor was reportedly only able to remove it by expanding the wound ever so slightly, as can be seen in part in the footage of the operation.