A curious Chinese boy has had a large sewing needle removed from his penis after he inserted it into his urethra and left it in there for two weeks.

The incident took place in the city of Nanjing in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu after the boy, name not disclosed, wondered what would happen if he inserted the 9-centimetre-long sewing needle into his penis.

The boy however seems to have been unable to remove it and ended up stuck there for two weeks until the pain got too much and blood appeared in his urine.

According to local media reports on 19th October, doctors at the Nanjing Children’s Hospital carried out an X-ray and noticed the object on the scan after he turned up complaining about the pain, and then when confronted with the evidence, the teen admitted that it was a needle he himself had put there.

In a procedure lasting a little over an hour, doctors then removed the needle without further incident.

Doctor Guo Yunfei said: “He only came here because he could not stand the pain anymore. We saw a needle after giving him an X-ray check. It was very long and had gone quite deep.”

The doctor added that it is not uncommon for adolescent boys to insert objects into their urethra while undergoing physical change and experimenting more with their bodies. However, he warned that it is dangerous as foreign objects can cause infection and blood in the urine (hematuria).

Doctor Guo added: “We receive young patients every year with all sorts of strange things. What we saw most in the past were electrical wires and earphone cords, and later we saw needles and magnetic beads.”

He called on better sex education for Chinese schoolchildren as studies show that they often lack knowledge about adolescent development and human reproduction.