Surgeons in the northern Indian city of Amritsar say they have successfully removed 40 knives from a man's stomach. 

Surjeet Singh, a police officer, had a severe stomach ache and poor appetite.

Doctors initially thought he might have a tumour, but a biopsy revealed the presence of metal.

"As soon as we placed the camera inside, we saw some metallic material on our screen", this surgeon says.

"There were shards of blades and wood.... I had never seen anything like it."

Singh said he developed a habit of swallowing blades after an accident stopped him from walking properly.

It took surgeons five hours to remove all the knives. Singh is now in a stable condition.