A 7cm leech was found in the boy’s respiratory tract (Picture: CEN)

A schoolboy who went to the doctor complaining of a sore throat was found to have a 7cm-long leech growing inside him.

Xiaobo Chien, 11, had been walking home from school in China’s Sichuan Province when he stopped to drink some water from a bucket by the side of the road – unaware that it contained leech larvae.

So when he went to the doctor complaining of a dizziness and a sore throat he was shocked to discover that a 7cm-long leech was lodged in his respiratory tract and had been growing inside him for weeks.

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Xiaobo said he wouldn’t be drinking water from a bucket again (Picture: CEN)

‘At first we thought he had flu as he said he was felling dizzy and had a sore throat,’ said the boy’s mother, Xiang Tung, 33.



‘He hadn’t told us about the water-drinking so it never occurred to us that he may have picked up something.’

Fortunately, the leech hadn’t caused an infection and doctors were able to extract it without too much trouble.

‘I won’t be drinking water from a bucket again,’ said Xiaobo.

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