A Spanish prisoner cuts off his own penis on Christmas Eve after learning that his wife will not come to see him for a conjugal visit.

The unnamed inmate’s life was saved after prison workers found him bleeding to death following his shocking act of self-mutilation, and rushed him to the jail health center.

The incident took place at the Puerto III prison in Puerto de Santa Maria in south-west Spain.

“An inmate amputated his penis because his wife didn’t want to go to prison to see him,” said the association who represents prison workers at the town’s jails.

Local reports claim that the prisoner suffers from mental health issues, and it is still unclear if the staff were able to reattach his penis.

A conjugal visit is a scheduled period wherein an inmate is granter permission to spend several hours or days in private with a visitor, to engage in an intimate activity if they wish.

The news comes after another prisoner in Spain was rushed to the hospital after cutting his own ears with a makeshift knife and swallowed them.

The man was said to have blacked out after committing his shocking act of cannibalism and was overpowered by prison guards at a jail near Badajoz.

Reports say that the guards were unable to find his ears, which led them to believe that the prisoner either ate them or flushed them down the toilet.

It was not made clear as to why the man was in jail, but confirmed that he also suffers from a psychiatric disorder.

Prison guards expressed their concerns as these episodes show the danger of people being held in prison rather than being in psychiatric units.

“Spain there are only a couple of centres of this sort and they’re clearly insufficient,” a union source told a local news.