A Brazilian teenager had to embark on a risky two-day canoe voyage through the Amazon to hospital after his brother accidentally harpooned him in the face.
The 15-year-old Amerindian travelled 195 miles by river from his rainforest home near the border with Colombia to the nearest town with the harpoon sticking out of his cheek.
The boy had been diving in a river to catch fish caught in a trap when his brother saw movement in the water and flung the harpoon, impaling him in the face.
Grisly: This unnamed 15-year-old from a native Brazilian Amazon community spent two days travelling by boat to get medical treatment after his brother accidentally harpooned him in the face while they were fishing
The youngster's family, from the indigenous community of Pari-Cachoeira on the Colombian border, sailed for two days to the São Gabriel da Cachoeira army hospital.
They carried the injured teenager - whose name has not been released - by canoe, with the harpoon sticking from his face during the entire journey through the rainforest's sticky heat.
According to local media, the youngster had been diving to catch fish trapped in a 'kakuri' - a trap made with wooden sticks which catches fish swimming against the current.
His brother, who was also in the river, saw ripples in the water and, thinking there was a fish beneath, hurled the harpoon.
Heavily forested, São Gabriel da Cachoeira is a municipality in the north-west of Brazil's Amazonas state. It is not far from the Equator, and the climate is correspondingly hot and humid.
The entire region has a population of nearly 41,000 mostly indigenous people scattered over 42,000 square miles of mostly dense rainforest.
Most of the non-indigenous residents of the region are personnel in the Brazilian army, who serve terms of two years based in the city of São Gabriel da Cachoeira - the site of a major military base.
It was a medical team at the garrison hospital who operated on the injured teenager to remove the harpoon after he arrived on Thursday.
He is now recovering in hospital.
