Giuseppe Fanara, 60, has been serving a life sentence in Sicily for nearly two decades after murdering a police officer.

He allegedly attacked the prison guard during a routine cell inspection and bit his finger while wrestling on the ground, The Times reports.

A prison official said: “A search was carried out for the finger but it was never found, which led us to conclude that he swallowed it.”

Mr Fanara, who belongs to the notorious Cosa Nostra, has since been transferred to a high-security prison in Sardinia.