**Brazilian doctors have begun emergency surgery on a two-year-old boy with more than 40 needles in his body.**They were allegedly inserted by the boy’s stepfather in a series of bizarre rituals.
A hospital spokeswoman in the north-eastern city of Salvador said surgeons would remove four needles that posed the biggest threat to the boy’s life.
One had punctured his heart, two are near the heart and another is inside a lung, she said.
The hospital said the operation would last at least six hours.
Doctors will leave the other needles for now, but could perform more operations later, the hospital said.
“Many organs have been affected and there could be further risk of infection,” said Francisco Reis, director of the Ana Neri hospital.
“The procedures themselves could pose a risk of death,” he added.
Brazilian police said the stepfather had confessed to sticking the needles into the toddler with the help of another man and a woman.
Roberto Carlos Magalhaes told them his mistress had told him to ritually kill the child to take revenge on his wife, police said.
The boy’s mother had taken him to hospital in north-eastern Bahia state suffering from stomach pains and vomiting.
It was then that X-rays showed scores of sewing needles inside his neck, torso and legs.
The youngster was airlifted to Salvador for the operation.
The boy’s mother told police she suspected the child had been the victim of a black magic ritual after she found suspicious objects in the home she shared with Mr Magalhaes - her husband of six months - and her six children.