There are concerns more than a thousand women have been subjected to a practice known as "breast ironing" in Britain.

The ritual, which was originally carried out in parts of Africa, involves young girls having their breasts beaten, burnt and massaged in order to stop them developing.

The aim is to make women less attractive to the opposite sex so that they focus on school work.

It is almost always carried out by a girl's mother, in the privacy of their own home.

One woman, who we have called Lara, told Sky News she was subjected to mutilation when she reached adolescence.

She said: "They put the spatula on the fire and then they press it on the breast and yes, it hurts.

"Then it goes weak, it's like melting, fat melting and you can feel the breast going back… one of my breasts is bigger than the other one."

It is thought as many as a thousand girls may have suffered this violent mutilation while living in Britain.

A Freedom of Information request by the Conservative MP Jake Berry found almost a quarter of children's services are not trained to deal with the practice, whilst 15% of police forces were unaware it even existed.

Breast ironing is a secretive and brutal form of mutilation.

Heated objects are used to burn children's breasts. Many then have bands tied tightly around their chests.

Experts believe the ritual can cause cysts, abscesses, even breast cancer.

Geraldine Yenwo, the founder of Came Women and Girls Development Organisation, told Sky News: "A lot of them have inverted nipples, they're not able to breast feed their children.

"Emotionally and psychologically, your self-esteem is very badly affected. Physically, some of them have one large and one flattened breast."

Mr Berry is calling on the Government to make breast ironing a criminal offence.

As yet, not a single person in the UK has been convicted of the crime.

In recent years there has been a lot of awareness raised about female genital mutilation.

However, campaigners insist there also needs to be focus on breast ironing, before it becomes a more widespread problem.