A hospital in Toulouse, southwest France, confirmed today that they had treated a man who was admitted with a shell lodged in his rectum – after calling a bomb disposal team.

A member of staff who insisted on anonymity confirmed the report in the local paper la Depeche du Midi.

“They [the medical team] discovered it and they called the bomb disposal team,” said the source.

The patient was admitted overnight Saturday to Sunday local time.

He told staff at Rangueil Hospital that he had introduced the object into his rectum himself, the newspaper reported.

The team in the operating room found themselves having to extract a “collectible shell nearly 20cm long”.

They called the bomb disposal team because of fears about the risk of an explosion.

Emergency services in Haute-Garonne said firefighters had also been sent “to ensure fire protection during the bomb disposal team’s intervention”.

“An explosive device has been neutralised”, they added, without elaborating.

A fire service spokesman and the local hospital service both told AFP they had no additional information on the matter.

- Agence France-Presse