Surgeons have removed 74 magnetic beads from a 10-year-old boy’s bladder after his parents brought him to hospital with agonising stomach pains.

The boy – from Changsha, Hunan province, southern China – refused to say why he was in pain until surgeons took scans on July 13.

Horrified medics saw scores of the magnetic beads gathered in the lad’s bladder.

A ureteroscopy into the bladder was carried out and doctors could see the magnets under the microscope.

Due to their position, doctors decided to carry out a cystectomy to surgically remove part of the boy’s bladder and safely extract the magnets.

Doctors said the two-hour operation was a success and the young patient is recovering well.

Liu Ming, deputy chief physician of the hospital’s urology department, said they treat several patients every year for swallowing magnets, small beads or similar.

Liu said the patients are usually adolescent boys aged between 10 and 14.

He added: “After ruling out whether the child has a rash, eczema, etc, patiently ask them whether they ingested something that’s now in the lower body.

“Only by obtaining the most real information can we avoid delaying the consultation time.”