A man has had scissors removed from his abdomen which were left behind during surgery 18 years ago, after reporting a stomach ache that was nearly two decades in the making, according to metro.co.uk.

Ma Van Nhat, now 54, underwent surgery in 1998 after a car accident and only recently discovered that doctors had left an unwelcome gift behind when they closed him up.

Doctors in Vietnam discovered the 6ins scissors near his colon after a recent ultrasound.

He had a three-hour operation at the weekend to remove the scissors, according to Ngo Trung Thang, deputy head of general affairs at Gang Thep Thai Nguyen hospital, 50 miles north of Hanoi.

‘He is recovering well,’ Thang told AFP.

Nhat had spent nearly two decades ‘eating, drinking and having a pretty normal life’, according to Suc Khoe va Doi Song news site, the official mouthpiece of Vietnam’s health ministry.