Reports said 15-year-old Dileepan Raj carried out a caesarean section to get into the Guinness Book of Records as the world's youngest surgeon.

Several doctors said the parents showed them a recording of the surgery. Now family members say the boy was only helping out at the operation.

The doctors face disqualification if the investigation finds against them.

Aghast

Many people in India perform extraordinary - and sometimes also bizarre - feats to get a place in the record books.

But commentators and the medical fraternity in India are aghast at the news of this unusual surgery from the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

According to reports, Raj carried out the caesarean operation on a 20-year-old woman under the supervision of his parents at their nursing home, Mathi Surgical and Maternity Hospital, in Manaparai town.

They said the family wanted to see their son's name in the record books as the "youngest surgeon in the world".

Several doctors who are members of the government-run Indian Medical Association who saw the video recording made by the parents have spoken out against the surgery.

The chairman of the association's academic wing Dr KK Aggarwal called it "shocking and extremely unethical".

The health authorities in Tamil Nadu state have ordered an inquiry into the incident.