Twin girls with a single body and two heads have been born at a hospital in China.

Staff at Suining City Central Hospital in Sichuan province said the parents, who are farmers, did not want to have the babies at first, fearing they could not afford to keep them alive.

They transferred the twins to a hospital in the nearby metropolis of Chongqing to be examined by experts.

The twins weighed 9lbs (4 kilos) and were 20 inches (51 centimetres) tall.

They have two spines and two oesophaguses and share other organs. Doctors said it would be nearly impossible to separate them.

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