Woman 'gave birth to lizard' claim

[Jazzy]

An investigation has been launched in Indonesia after a woman was accused of having given birth to a lizard.

Officials have sent a team of experts to the remote Oenunto Village where a midwife claimed the lizard was born.

Scientists in the team said it was clearly nonsense that the woman, named as Debi Nubatonis, 31, had given birth to a lizard but they needed to come up with a logical explanation.

Midwife Josephine Lydia Hellen Wadu claimed she went to help Ms Nubatonis deliver her baby but instead of a child, a lizard was born.

She insisted on taking the lizard to the Oenuntono Health Centre and filed a report to claim it had been born from the woman.

The allegations led to threats against the woman and her family who were accused of witchcraft and that quickly led to hysterical debate on the internet.

Chief Medical Officer of nearby Kupang City, Dr Messe Ataupa, said a team has been sent in to investigate and clear it up.

"It is clearly a nonsense to suggest that the woman gave birth to a lizard. There has never been a proven case of a living organism from one species giving birth to a different species, it just doesn't happen," he said.

Dr Ataupa said the woman may have had a phantom pregnancy and that the lizard may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Source