Identical twins have been killed by Belgian doctors in a unique case under the country's euthanasia laws.

The 45-year-old brothers from the Antwerp region were born deaf and sought euthanasia after finding that they would also soon go blind.

They told doctors that they were unable to bear the thought of not being able to see each other again.

The twins, who have not been named but have been pictured on Belgian television, had spent their entire lives together, sharing a flat and working as cobblers.

Belgium's Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper reported at the weekend that doctors at Brussels University Hospital in Jette "euthanised" the two men by lethal injection on December 14.