Paralysed people could walk again instantly after scientists developed a brain implant which turns thought into electrical signals in the spine so that lost feeling can be restored after injury.

Currently people who break their backs or suffer a spinal trauma are unable to stand or move even though their legs still work, because the signal which connects their brains to their muscles is disconnected.

But an international team of scientists have shown it is possible to bypass the injury and reconnect the brain signals to electrodes at an undamaged part of the spine.

Two monkeys who were temporarily paralysed in one leg were able to walk again instantly using the technique, which could be available for humans within a decade.

"For the first time, I can imagine a completely paralysed patient able to move their legs through this brain-spine interface, said neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch of the Lausanne University Hospital.