'Fish jumped out of sea and stabbed my neck'

Indonesian teenager Muhammad Idul says fish leapt out of the sea and speared him through the neck

An Indonesian teenager has opened up about the accident in which a fish leapt out of the sea and speared him through the neck.

Speaking exclusively to BBC Indonesian, Muhammad Idul, 16, said he was out on a late-night fishing trip with his friend Sardi when the fish suddenly sprang out from the waters off Wakinamboro village in southern Indonesia.

“Sardi’s boat sailed off first, and I went later in another boat,” Muhammad said. “About 500 meters off the beach, Sardi turned on the flashlight. A needlefish suddenly jumped out of the water and stabbed my neck.”



The impact sent Muhammad flying off the boat and into the water as the slim, silvery fish continued to flail while lodged in his neck.

He grabbed the fish and held it tight, hoping he could stop it making the injury worse. "I asked Sardi to help...he stopped me from trying to remove the fish to prevent bleeding," he said.

The boys somehow managed to swim back to the beach with Muhammad holding the 75cm-long fish clasped in his arms and still stuck in his neck.

Both swam back to the beach, and the victim was rushed to a local hospital.

There, doctors cut the fish’s body off but they were unable to remove its head because they did not have the right equipment.

Muhammad’s father then rushed him to the Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital, where five surgeons carefully removed the creature in a first-of-its-kind procedure.

The incident, however, has not dampened Muhammad's love of fishing. "I just need to be more careful next time. Needlefish can't tolerate light - that was why it jumped out of the water and stabbed me," he said.