This is the hair-raising moment doctors discover a giant cockroach wriggling inside a young man’s ear.

The patient, not named in local media, visited a local clinic in Shanghai, China’s biggest city, after he reportedly began feeling sudden discomfort in his left ear.

Stunned doctors inserted a small camera in his ear to examine the issue and found a big roach squirming in his ear canal.

The surprised doctor quickly retracted the camera, but immediately shook off the initial shock and went back in with a pair of medical tweezers.

Phone footage shows her grabbing the insect by one of its legs and pulling it out of the patient’s ear while laughing and exclaiming in apparent disgust.

The relieved patient later said he did not know when the cockroach entered his ear but guessed it must have occurred while he was sleeping.

The clip of the extraction attracted widespread attention on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, with many netizens expressing their disgust at the sight of the lively roach.

One user titled ‘Haihai loves travel’ commented: “I’m most afraid of cockroaches, they feel so ghastly.”

User ‘A big mouthful’ wrote: “I once had a beetle fall into my ear and felt like I was going to die.”

And user ‘sunflower cub’ said: “Fortunately I wear earplugs when I sleep at night!”