A 49-year-old Chinese factory worker has survived after he was skewered with ten metal spikes in a Hunan province porcelain factory last Tuesday.

The man, named as Mr Zhou in local reports, was working the night shift when a robotic arm fell and struck him - impaling him with foot-long half-inch thick metal rods, according to the People's Daily.

After an initial examination, Zhou was rushed to Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in extreme distress and was unable to move his right hand. Six of the spikes were embedded in his right shoulder and chest, and four penetrated his right forearm and wrist.

Zhou was operated on by a multidisciplinary team, including hand microsurgeons and cardiothoracic specialists under the guidance of Professor Tang Juyu.

Each spike was carefully removed - one of which missed Zhou's subclavian artery and nearby vein, which would have most certainly killed him had they been severed.

"The metal pieces were relatively big so there was no means of fitting the patient into the X-ray machine while the nails themselves could have caused interference with X-rays," said associate professor of hand microsurgery, Wu Panfeng.

Zhou has regained some sensation and movement in his right hand and is currently in recovery.