Retrieved: Ben Hsu holds up the AirPod after he was forced to dig it out from a toilet

A Taiwanese man was stunned to find that his Apple AirPod still worked after he swallowed the device and was forced to dig it out of a toilet.

Ben Hsu fell asleep with the pair of wireless headphones still in his ears but woke up unable to find one of them.

Using an iPhone tracking feature he discovered the device was still in his room and heard its beeping sound following him around.

He said: 'I checked under my blanket and looked around but couldn't find it - then I realised the sound was coming from my stomach.'

The navy recruiter, from Taiwan's south-western port city of Kaohsiung, said he did not feel any discomfort.

But he went to Kaohsiung Municipal United Hospital where medics confirmed he had swallowed the AirPod.

They said it was currently passing through his digestive system, saying it would need surgery to remove if it did not appear naturally.

Doctors gave him a laxative and told him to inspect his waste for any sign of the device.

Fortunately for Mr Hsu the AirPod resurfaced when he relieved himself at a railway station the next day.

X-ray: This image shows the Apple hardware inside the Taiwanese naval recruiter's stomach, after he accidentally swallowed it when he fell asleep with the earphones still in

He was forced into a foul-smelling search but was able to pick out the £65 device and found that it was still intact.

After washing the AirPod and letting it dry Mr Hsu was amazed to find that it still worked.

'The battery was still at 41 percent! It was incredible,' he said, calling his experience with the Apple product 'magical'.

Dr Chen Chieh-fan, who works in the emergency room, explained: 'Because of the plastic shell around the AirPod, the risk of it causing him harm in a similar way to swallowing a regular lithium-ion battery is much lower.'

Direct exposure to a battery could have caused a serious rupture in his intestines, reports said.