Reports claim that just being close to items such as computers is enough for New York schoolboy Joe to affect them.

Other pupils could use machines in the IT suite without any hassle, but as soon as Joe was on it “weird things started to happen”, said teacher Marie Yerdon. 

A school awards ceremony was also disrupted when a slide show crashed.

“We didn’t think anything of it, until teachers sprinted over to move Joe away from the hard drive,” said his father.

The freak occurrence has been blamed on the extraordinary amount of static electricity Joe creates, with school friends calling him Magneto-Man.

To help dampen his powers he has been fitted with an anti-static wrist strap and a grounding pad.