ISLAMABAD: A man in Australia had to be rushed to hospital in acute pain after a cockroach crawled into his ear while he was sleeping, and an attempt to suck it out with a vacuum cleaner failed.

Treatment initially only caused the inch-long insect to burrow further into the head, Fox News reported.

The unwelcome invader was eventually extracted by a doctor with forceps, but only after Helmer had endured the unpleasant sensation of it being in the "throes of death-twitching."

His ordeal began in the early hours of morning when he was woken by a sharp pain in his right ear.

He said: "I was hoping it was not a poisonous spider, I was hoping it didn't bite me."

Source: APP