11:16am UK, Tuesday December 13, 2005

A boy's nose has been sewn back on by surgeons after it was pulled out of a dog's stomach.

The 11-year-old's nose was torn off by the dog's teeth as he was mauled, according to The Daily Telegraph.

His father immediately took him to hospital, where surgeons contacted the vet who had been asked to put the dog down.

The alsatian was opened up so the vet could search his innards for the nose - and it was miraculously found in one piece.

Still worried about infection, doctors sterilised the nose before spending 11 painstaking hours sewing it back on to the child's face.

Incredibly, the child can now breathe normally and his sense of smell has not been affected.

Professor Jiri Vesely, chief plastic surgeon at the hospital in the Czech Republic said: "We thought it was worth checking inside the dog in case it hadn't chewed it.

"It was a great discovery to find he had swallowed it whole. It was intact."