Magnetic man

Some guys have a kind of animal magnetism – but amazing Aurel Raileanu finds just about anything will stick to him like glue. He can make a 50lb TV set stick to his chest without wires, glue or string and clear a table of cutlery faster than an army of waiters.

Aurel Raileanu is known as the Human Magnet - and though he sounds like a comic book character he is just a humble Romanian hospital worker with a bizarrely magnetic body.

Though he has kept his unusual talent quiet for years, Aurel, who lives in Bucharest, is embarking on a career change and using his strange abilities for good - not just entertainment.

The 40-year-old bachelor, who lives with his mother, is working as a kinetotherapist, according to The Sun newspaper - using the healing qualities of his powers to help people recover from accidents.

Aurel wrote to The Sun detailing his powers and demonstrated his talents: walking around with a television stuck to his chest.

His powers extend beyond metal - he also stuck a big piece of wood studded with nails to his body.

"I tend to keep it a secret from people in my home town because I am afraid of being branded a freak," he admitted.

Aurel said he does not understand how his power works. "I might have had a sort of magnetism since I was a child, but it wasn't until about six years ago that I realised the objects would stay as if glued on to me.

"At the time I was wearing a fairly heavy necklace and the clasp broke. I saw it in the mirror - it was open and yet still stuck to my neck."

The curious Aurel tried his new trick with other objects: "even the TV set, which is kind of heavy. They all stuck to me. But the magnetism only works on bare skin. It is when I go to the doctor that it becomes a little funny because the stethoscope gets stuck to my chest."