Girl, nine, had the embryo of her twin INSIDE her stomach

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A 44-day-old human embryo (file picture)

A girl of nine taken to hospital suffering from stomach pains was found to be carrying her embryonic twin, doctors said yesterday.

Experts believe that, as a foetus, the girl had absorbed her twin within her own body during the very early stages of her mother's pregnancy.

The discovery of the 2in embryo came after doctors at Larissa hospital in central Greece examined the girl and surgically removed a growth.

"They could see on the right side that her belly was swollen, but they couldn't suspect that this tumour would hide an embryo," said hospital director Iakovos Brouskelis.

Tests revealed a foetus with a head, hair and eyes, but no brain or umbilical cord.

The girl, whose family did not want to be identified, has made a full recovery.

Andreas Markou, the head of the hospital's paediatric department, said cases where one of a set of twins absorbs the other in the womb occurs in one in 500,000 live births.

The condition known as " foetus in foeto" - or inclusion twin - happens when one twin foetus envelops the other.

These days, ultrasound technology usually means such cases are detected very early on.