Churchgoers watched in horror as a parishioner gouged out his own eyeballs in the middle of a priest's sermon at Sunday Mass in a small Italian town.
Aldo Bianchini, 46, who was born in Britain but has lived in Italy most of his life, tore out his eyeballs after he heard voices telling him to do so, reported the Daily Mail.
Bianchini collapsed to the floor in a pool of blood as his mother frantically tried to help him while the local priest father Lorenzo Tanganelli rushed out to alert emergency services.
As he was going into surgery, Bianchini told doctors he had "heard voices" telling him to tear out his eyes.
"He was in a great deal of agony and he was covered in blood," said Dr Gino Barbacci. "He said that he had used his bare hands to gouge out his eye balls after hearing voices telling him to do so - to do something like that requires super human strength."