Police in Russia are tracking a gang - apparently including a doctor - who drugged a TV soap actor and removed his testicles, international media report.

Dmitry Nikolaev, 30, had a drink with a 'young blonde woman' who approached him at a bar after he finished a performance at a small Moscow theatre.

Flirting with him, she invited him to a sauna, and he agreed to go with her.

'They kissed and had some more beer and after that the actor remembers nothing,' said a police source.

He woke up next day at a bus stop, feeling acute pain, and with blood on his trousers.

Rushed to hospital, he was told that his testicles had been removed and that 'it was done like proper surgery by someone with a medical education'.

The operation was conducted in a 'skillful way', said police, who believe his beer was spiked by an unknown drug.

They fear a gang seeking to sell human organs on the black market.