Nine-year-old girl had twin in stomach

An embryonic twin has been discovered in the stomach of a nine-year-old Greek girl who went to hospital complaining of stomach pains.

News agency Associated Press reported doctors at Larissa General Hospital surgically removed a growth that was an embryo more than 2 inches in length.

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

The girl has made a full recovery.

The embryo had developed a head, hair and eyes, but had no brain or umbilical cord, hospital paediatric department head Andreas Markou said.

It had been absorbed into its twin in the womb.

Such absoprtion is rare, occuring in about one 500,000 live births.