A British woman was found to have a dead turtle inside her vagina.

The ex-pat was taken to hospital in Tenerife, Spain after experiencing severe abdominal pains.

Her doctors made the shocking discovery.

It is unclear how the turtle ended up inside the woman and she told doctors she has no recollection of it being put there.

She said she began experiencing pain two days after going out partying with British friends.

Police were called to the hospital by a doctor who was concerned the woman may have been the victim of a sexual assault, reported ABC news.

A police source in Tenerife said: "This incident did happen and the reports are true. The woman does not know how the reptile ended up where it did and we don’t either."

The woman suffered a “serious infection” from the dead animal, believed to be a freshwater turtle and police have opened an investigation into the incident.

"The duty doctors inspected her and saw that her discomfort was due to the fact that the woman, who lives on the island, had a dead turtle inside her vagina which had caused a serious infection," police said.

This originally appeared on Kidspot and has been republished with permission.