A shocking range of plastic, from sweet wrappers to packaging with Arabic script, has been discovered in a large marine turtle that died on the Italian coast.

The loggerhead turtle was found on a beach on the Cilento peninsula in the southern region of Campania.

When marine biologists performed a post-mortem on the animal, they found dozens of bits of plastic inside its stomach.

They included tattered bits of a plastic cup, an M&Ms sweet wrapper and six plastic filters, as well as packaging with a bar code that showed it was manufactured in Algeria.

The extent of plastic pollution in the turtle’s stomach was revealed by scientists from the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station in Naples.