Man shoots himself through head with speargun in diving accident

Arrow slams into right cheek and comes out in front of left ear - but misses brain and eyes

It is the kind of incident that might convince one of a higher power.

A priest has accidentally shot himself in the face with a spear gun while scuba diving. Despite the three-foot dart impaling his head, he survived.

Connie Hallowell, from Umkomaas, in South Africa, called his escape a “miracle”.

The near-tragedy happened as he was spearfishing in the sea off Scottburgh Beach, south of Durban, on Saturday.

“I put my gun down while I was trying to get some sinkers out of the rocks,” the 48-year-old father-of-two told the country’s Sunday Tribune newspaper from his hospital bed in Pietermaritzburg.

“A big wave came, and with that wave in action, I tried to remove the gun, and the trigger went off and fired the spear into my face.”

The arrow smashed straight through his right check and out in front of his left ear – but crucially missed his brain and eyes.

He said: “When I tried to move my head, I couldn’t, and I realised it was a spear. I managed to stand up, and I just thought let me stay awake. I screamed for people to help me while I walked back towards the shore.”

He was able to make it to dry land where lifeguards treated him while a fisherman shortened the embedded projectile with an angle grinder.

Doctors were able to remove the spear after he was airlifted to hospital.

“I can see, I can talk, everything is going well. I’ve got a bit of numbness, but I will be much better,” Mr Hallowell said on Sunday. “It’s amazing that I am here at all.”

He added that he had no plans to quit spearfishing and was already planning his next trip.