Doctors In Colombia Remove 18cm Fish From Man's Throat

The 24-year-old man had been fishing at a lake in the municipality of Pivijay, located in the department of Magdalena, on Friday 23 January.

According to local media, he'd been out fishing for food for his family when he managed to catch a fish.

After grabbing it in his hands, he threw the line back into the water - at which point a second fish immediately bit his line.

With the first catch still in his hands, he wasn't sure what to do to avoid losing the other, so decided to place the original fish in his mouth while he reeled in the second.

As you can imagine, this did not end particularly well.

The moment he placed the fish inside his mouth, it moved to try and free itself - ending up lodging itself in the young man's throat.

The fisherman walked to Santander Herrera Hospital by himself, but was unable to explain to medics what had happened, as he was having difficulty breathing and couldn't speak properly.

Doctors only realised he was choking on a fish after conducting an x-ray, and quickly stepped into action to get it removed.

The video footage shows doctors from the hospital removing the 18cm fish from the unnamed man's oesophagus.

Someone can also be heard gasping in the background as the fish is pulled from his throat, while the doctor says: "Ladies and gentlemen, something extraordinary.

"A young man in Pivijay swallowed a fish. We removed the foreign object from his oesophagus.

The fisherman was kept in hospital over the weekend to be kept under observation, but there have been no reports of him suffering any serious injury.

The type of fish found inside his throat was reportedly from the mojarra family - a species that is very popular in Colombia.

"Mojarras are silvery fishes with compressed bodies; they are distinguished by their highly protrusible mouths, with the opened jaws forming an extended tube. Although their maximum length is about 35 cm (14 inches), most species of mojarra do not attain lengths greater than 25 cm (10 inches)."