A 12-year-old Chinese boy had to have a thermometer surgically removed after shoving it down his penis.

A Chinese boy shoved a thermometer down his penis

A Chinese boy shoved a thermometer down his penis

The unnamed child inserted the device into his penis while masturbating and had to be rushed to hospital after suffering severe pain when it got stuck.

X-rays revealed that the thermometer had been inserted so far into the boy's urinary tract that it had actually entered his bladder.

Doctors at a hospital in the city of Chengdu extracted the thermometer from the boy using keyhole surgery as they feared that pulling it out would damage the youngster's organs.

The operation was successful but medics did not reveal if the boy had suffered any long-term complications from his sexual misadventure.

Lead author of the case report, Dr. Changxing Ke, claimed that the boy inserted the thermometer into his penis to masturbate as a result of "feelings of curiosity" and "a lack of sex education".