Scientists at Newcastle University have created part-human, part-animal hybrid embryos for the first time in the UK.

The Catholic Church has branded them “experiments of Frankenstein proportion.”

The embryos survived for up to three days and are part of medical research into a range of illnesses. They were created by injecting DNA derived from human skin cells into eggs taken from cows ovaries that have had virtually all their genetic material removed.

Scientists want to extract stem cells from the embryos to increase understanding of a whole range of diseases from diabetes to stroke and ultimately to produce treatments.