A SWORD swallower who impaled himself with a neon tube before a live audience is set to take to the stage in Bournemouth.

Hannibal Hellmurto ripped a 10cm hole in his oesophagus while recently attempting the feat in Bradford.

He had already consumed a giant sword, curved serpent sword and three blades at once before calamity struck.

But after three weeks in intensive care – and a further fortnight in recuperation – he is ready to go back on the road with the Circus of Horrors.

The ghoulish collective have pencilled in a date at the Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre as part of Hannibal’s comeback tour and he will appear on February 19.

A Circus of Horrors spokesman said the neon tube feat was one of the most dangerous in a sword swallower’s repertoire.

He added: “If it breaks it will leave glass inside you, it contains mercury and of course it is powered by electricity, any of which would almost certainly kill you.

“Luckily the tube did not break but it did rip a 10 centimetre hole in his oesophagus. He finished the show but was struggling to breath and was rushed to Bradford Royal Infirmary.”

Hannibal, a former German tax official, was part of the circus team which reached the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent.

In previous incarnations the circus has brought Moulin Rouge era Paris and a 19th-century asylum to life on Pavilion stage Sixteen years after its conception at the Glastonbury Festival, the show has gone on to tour the world, achieving cult status and dragging circus screaming and shouting into the 21st century. The new Bournemouth show at the Pavilion Theatre is entitled The Ventriloquist.

Taking you audiences on a journey through 1920s Berlin, the birth place of cabaret, The Ventriloquist will feature hair-hanging beauties, twisted contortionists, flying aerialists, gyrating jugglers, and of course, the ventriloquist.