French Man's Unusual Insertion Ends in Bomb Scare

Doctors at a hospital in southernFrancewere forced to evacuate an emergency ward and call in bomb disposal experts after discovering a live World War I artillery shell lodged inside a young man’s rectum. The extraordinary case, which unfolded late last week, combined a medical emergency with a full-scale security response—and is now likely to end in legal trouble for the patient. The incident took place in Toulouse, where hospital staff initially treated what appeared to be a routine case of abdominal discomfort. What they found instead set off alarms far beyond the operating room. The man, a 24-year-old French national, arrived at the emergency department complaining of severe discomfort. According to investigators, he told doctors that he had inserted a large object into his rectum and was unable to remove it. During examination and subsequent emergency surgery, doctors discovered that the object was not just large, but potentially deadly. The item was identified as a live World War I-era artillery shell, dating back to 1918. The shell measured roughly eight inches in length and about an inch in diameter.