A 43-year-old man has cut off his own penis in a residential street in Cornwall.
The naked man used a kitchen knife as he performed the amputation in front of horrified onlookers, The Falmouth Packet reports.
A spokesman for South Western Ambulance Service told the newspaper the man was "bleeding heavily" and had fallen unconscious when they arrived around 9pm on Friday night.
Police were contacted by worried passerbys who witnessed the incident.
A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police told Huffington Post UK: "It was clear that the injuries inflicted were very serious due to the amount of blood found at the location."
He added that when police arrived the man had returned to a nearby property and that the officers had to gain entry to perform life-saving first aid as they awaited the arrival of the paramedics.
Sgt Phil Binnie said: "If the public had not called this in as quickly as they did and without the prompt life saving actions of the officers attending, this would most likely have been a fatal incident."
PC Jules Evans added: "This was a very distressing incident for all involved, and I would like to thank the public for their assistance at the time.
"I feel very sorry for the members of the public who witnessed this incident but had it not been for their help this person would most probably have died."
The man is being treated in Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro and is described as being in a stable condition. No other people were harmed during the incident.