Beijing: A Chinese scientist’s claim that he has created the world’s first genetically edited babies has provoked a strong backlash from China’s science community, with several institutions supposedly linked to the discovery distancing themselves from it.

Hundreds of Chinese scientists signed a letter on social media on Monday which condemned direct human experimentation as “crazy”.

He Jiankui claims he helped make the world's first genetically edited babies: twin girls whose DNA he said he altered. Credit:AP

He Jiankui, a researcher in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, said he altered the genes of a pair of twins while they were embryos to make the babies resistant to the virus that causes AIDS, the Associated Press reported. He was not available to comment, his spokesman said.

The university where He works also moved to swiftly distance itself from his research, after he claimed to have altered embryos from seven couples during fertility treatment.