A gamer accused of cheating in a net café game of CounterStrike narrowly escaped death after irate players skewered his head on a knife.

The incident began in a net café in China’s northern province of Jilin, when a group of youths apparently noticed a 17-year-old boy they had been playing CounterStrike with had been cheating by using a “wallhack” to allow himself to see through walls.

An argument began and a fight broke out outside the café. During the fight the cheater had a 30cm knife thrust into his left temple, with the blade only being stopped by the other side of his skull.

His assailants fled the scene after inflicting this injury, and he was quickly taken to hospital in an ambulance, still remaining conscious. Doctors decided to operate immediately.

Doctors explain the blade narrowly avoided major arteries, avoiding a devastating haemorrhage, and failed to impair his motor control despite passing through areas of the brain associated with such.

They were able to carefully extract the blade after opening his skull in an operation lasting some 10 hours, but noted that the knife was rusty – he has been placed under observation in case fragments of rust left inside his brain cause complications.

The net café in question was apparently popular with local youths as it did not require ID – government fear mongering about gaming culture has seen a variety of draconian restrictions placed on net cafés, so the café may be facing some unwelcome attention from the authorities.