Parishioner gouges out own eyes during sermon

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."

Although doctors tried to save Bianchini's sight by reinserting the eye balls in both sockets, they said there was nothing they could do and he will remain blind.

Priest Father Tanganelli said he had just started to read the sermon when all of a sudden there was a great commotion.

"This man at the back of the knave started tearing at his face and I realised he was gouging out his eyes," said Tanganelli.

"There must have been 300 people at Mass to begin with and we were lucky that at first one of the closest people to him was an off duty paramedic who was the first to help him but I have never seen as much blood as I saw today."

- HERALD ONLINE