Sun Jifa, 51, lost both his hands when a bomb he was creating for blast fishing in Guanmashan, Jilin province, northern China, exploded prematurely.

Sun spent eight years making prototypes before finally creating a pair of metal hands which can grip and hold thanks to a series of wires and pulleys inside the shell, Croatian Times reports.

Now he plans to develop the design for other similarly disabled people.

“I made this from scrap metal for virtually nothing. There is no need to pay hospitals a fortune,” he said.