Man finds his own amputated leg on cigarette packet

A man in eastern France was shocked to discover a picture of his own amputated leg being used on cigarette packets as a warning to smokers.

The picture on the EU cigarette packet informs buyers that ‘smoking clogs your arteries’ alongside the image.

However, the man in the picture has now come forward to say he lost his leg in Albania during an assault in 1997.

He believes the image was taken during a hospital appointment in which he was examined to see if he could be equipped with a prosthetic leg.

The man says he never gave consent for the photo to be used on the cigarette boxes.

Metz : il retrouve la photo de sa jambe amputée sur des paquets de cigarettes https://t.co/w625zN8LGG

— France Bleu Lorraine Nord (@fblorrainenord) July 17, 2019

The picture was first spotted by his son, who bought a packet of rolling tobacco last year in Luxembourg, French media reports.

Recognising his father’s burns and scars, he brought the packet home with him.

The man in the photo, from Albania but now living in Metz, has since been in in touch with lawyer Antoine Fittante who contacted the European Commission to find out what happened.

Mr Fittante said: ‘It’s rather incredible that a person finds themselves without their agreement on cigarette packets throughout the European Union.

‘My client feels betrayed, wounded in his dignity, by seeing his disability [displayed] on cigarette packets in tobacconists; one must admit that’s not very pleasant.’

Mr Fittante has also written to the hospital, to find out how the photos ended up being used.

The European Commission is responsible for the distribution of health images on all EU cigarette packets.

Images are usually found on a database and only verified and published if the person photographed gives their consent.

In 2017, a woman from Essex claimed to find a cigarette packet that featured an image of her late father, who had been on a life support in intensive care.

However, both the EU Commission and Basildon University Hospital, where her father had been treated, denied the claim.