A man was speared twice in the chest by arrows as he tried to save his girlfriend from being raped by a tribesman in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea

Matthew Scheurich, 28, pulled the barbs from his chest and almost bled to death as he and his girlfriend fled for their lives through the thick jungle. He remains in hospital in Cairns, Australia, after his wounds became infected as the couple made their escape from the tropical island nation. The attack happened after a tribesman in a remote village in western Papua New Guinea took a shine to Scheurich's French girlfriend and decided he wanted to marry her. Scheurich stepped in to protect the woman, but the tribesman retaliated by spearing him with arrows and hitting him in the head with a rock. His survival has been dubbed a miracle after the barbs narrowly missed his vital organs and he lost liters of blood. Scheurich's girlfriend endured a sexual assault and was also bitten, cut, scratched and badly bruised in the fracas. The couple were only rescued after she set off their emergency locator beacon to raise the alarm.