A British woman has been questioned by police in Spain after doctors found a dead tortoise inside her vagina, according to reports in the Spanish media.

Staff at the emergency department of a medical center in the south of the island Tenerife are said to have called local cops after making the bizarre discovery, the respected daily El Dia claimed.

The unnamed woman, described as an expat by El Confidential, is said to have sought help after suffering pain in her genital area which doctors diagnosed as an infection caused by the reptile.

The Sun has not been able to independently verify any of the claims that have been widely reported in Spanish media.

She is said to have told police she began to feel odd after going out partying with a group of British friends a couple of days earlier, El Periodico reports.

She apparently had no idea how the reptile ended up where it did.

The size of the reptile has not been revealed and some reports suggest it may have been a turtle rather than a tortoise.

Island papers – and respected Spanish dailies which have echoed the story – have named the medical center she attended as El Mojon in the municipality of Arona in the south of the island.

The facility, above the holiday resort of Los Cristianos, operates as a small hospital and is eventually expected to become the main southern Tenerife state hospital.

When contacted by The Sun Online, no one from the hospital was available for comment this afternoon although El Dia said health officials had declined to comment for data protection reasons.

National Police in Tenerife, reported to have been called in to question the woman over concern about how the animal had ended up in her private parts, also could not be immediately reached.

She is said to have gone to the emergency department at El Mojon on Saturday.