Stomach-churning video footage has captured the moment doctors removed a wriggling worm from a man's eye.

The unnamed patient, from India, complained of both pain and itching in his eyes and decided to seek medical help.

Amazed doctors spotted the parasite, which measured 15cm, squirming around in one of his eyeballs and pulled it out.

Further tests revealed the 60-year-old, from Karnataka - a state in the south west of the country - also had worms in his blood.

The unnamed patient, from India, complained of both pain and itching in his eyes and decided to seek medical help (pictured: the worm in the man's eye)

The patient sought help at New Medical Centre in Kundapur. It is unknown how the worm got into his eye.

The actual medical term for having a parasitic worm or its larvae in the eye is ocular filariasis. They are transmitted through mosquito bites.

An estimated 120 million people, primarily in Central Africa, South and Central America, and Asia are infected with the worm. It is rare to be found in the eye.

Dr Srikanth Shetty noticed the parasitic worm in his eye and identified it as being from the Wuchereria Bancrofti species.

Amazed doctors spotted the parasite, which measured 15cm, squirming around in one of his eyeballs and pulled it out (pictured: the worm being removed)

Dr Shetty warned the worm had the potential to permanently damage the man's eyesight, if it was not removed immediately.

He told local reporters: 'The challenge was to pull out the worm live as killing it inside the eye would have created complications.

'It was also difficult to pin it down as it was moving around. The patient has worms in his blood also and has been put on medication.'

The footage comes after MailOnline published gruesome footage of the moment a surgeon removed a live and wriggling leech from a patient's nostril.

The unnamed patient in Malaysia was thought to have got himself into the unusual predicament while swimming in a river a couple of weeks earlier.