Miracle as boy survives after arrow shot through his skull

A schoolboy archer had a narrow escape after being shot through the eye with an arrow.

It went through 11-year-old Liu Cheong's eye socket, completely through his head and was only stopped by the back of his skull.

"If the arrow had been shot with just a bit more force, it would have come out the back of his head," said doctors at Jida Hospital in Changchun, eastern China.

The boy only survived because the arrow had miraculously missed his brain.

Surgeons spent four hours removing the 16 inch arrow which had sunk more than four inches into the boy's head. They had to cut away part of it just to get him in the CT scanner.

After brain scans and x-rays, doctors began to cut away parts of his skull to remove the arrow without damaging optic nerves or brain tissue.

His parents have been warned he still faces a risk of infection and may need further ops. The teammate who shot him - a 13-year-old girl called Yan Shin - is being treated for shock.

"It is a miracle he survived the accident," said one medic.

Teachers at Jiutai City school believe the youngsters were practicing on their own when the accident happened.