A cockroach and more than 10 of its babies were found living inside the ear canal of a Chinese man after he complained of a "sharp pain" in his right ear while sleeping, a media report said.

Following the discovery, Lv, 24, sought out doctors at the Sanhe Hospital in Huiyang district, Guangdong province, last month, the Daily Express said in its report on Wednesday. An ENT specialist from the hospital said: "He said his ear hurt a lot, like something was scratching or crawling inside. It caused a lot of discomfort. "I discovered more than 10 cockroach babies inside. They were already running around."

The newly hatched cockroaches were small and lighter in colour than their black and brown mother, the hospital said. The specialist plucked the tiny insects from Lv's right ear one by one using a pair of tweezers, before removing the much larger mother roach. The hospital's head of ENT, Li Jinyuan, told local media that Lv had a habit of leaving unfinished food packets near his bed, attracting parasites such as cockroaches.