Any hay fever sufferer can confirm that sneezing can be surprisingly violent. Darco Sangermano, 28, would surely agree, after he sneezed out a bullet after being shot during raucous New Year's Eve celebrations in the Italian city of Naples.

Sangermano was hit in the temple by a stray bullet while wandering around the famously rambunctious city during its new year celebrations, which involve fireworks, firecrackers and occasional gunshots.

As the sky exploded with various displays, he was struck by a stray .22 calibre bullet in the side of the head, behind his right eye. Although it lodged in his nasal passage, it appears the gods were on his side, as the bullet did no serious damage.

Bleeding profusely, he was rushed to hospital in the first minutes of the new year. But while waiting to be seen by a doctor, the patient astonished doctors by sneezing and propelling the bullet out through his right nostril.

Doctors said they expect Sangermano, a craftsman from Turin, to make a full recovery. The bullet slowed down significantly when it hit his skull, which, they said, saved his sight and his life. Surgeons operated on the eye, removing splinters of bone left in the wake of the bullet that entered his head.

"The route of the bullet broke his temporal bone, near his temple, and this slowed down the bullet, which grazed his eyeball without hitting it directly," Dr Guglielmo Ramieri told Gente magazine.

Sangermano needs further surgery to repair the damage done to his retina.

"The operation lasted several hours but he is fine," said Mr Sangermano's uncle, Vito Sangermano. "The doctors agree that he will not lose the use of his eye, even if for now his sight is blurry."