A family sitting down to dinner had to call police and an ambulance after a man allegedly bit off the nose of his girlfriend.

A Tulsa woman came out of a back room of her residence with a napkin over her face and said her boyfriend had bitten her nose. Medics responding to the house saw that the nose had been severed and called police.

"We looked around and tried to find a nose but couldn't find it," a Cpl. of Tulsa police said. "I think he swallowed it."

An ambulance took her to a local hospital where police talked to emergency room personnel about pumping the man's stomach to see if the nose was inside. "They said, given the acid in the stomach, that it would be a futile effort to try and do that.

The nose is made primarily of cartilage and other soft tissues that stomach acid can dissolve quickly.

The couple live in California, and the other people at the house didn't know what led to the assault. Officers used pepper spray on the boyfriend after tussling with him as they tried to take him into the custody, he denied biting Bennett's nose, police said.

He was booked into the Tulsa Jail on complaints of aggravated assault and battery, resisting arrest and destroying evidence.

The nose-less girl could receive help from domestic violence groups to recover from her injury if she cooperates with the prosecution should a criminal charge be filed.