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Customs officials at a Chinese airport had a nasty surprise when they opened a couple's luggage and discovered it contained hundreds of live cockroaches, it's reported.

According to the , security at southern Guangdong's Baiyun International Airport noticed movement in an elderly couple's luggage when they placed their bags through an x-ray machine on 25 November.

"There was a white plastic bag with lots of black items moving inside," security guard Xu Yuyu told Kankan News.

"One of the staff opened their luggage and a roach crawled out of it. She almost cried," Ms Xu added.

When asked why they were transporting the cockroaches, the husband told officials that they were an ointment for his wife's skin.

He did not specify what her condition was, but Ms Yu says officials were told: "They were part of an old folk remedy. You mix the roaches in some medicinal cream and put it on your skin."

Beijing Youth Daily says that because living organisms are not permitted in on-flight hand luggage, the couple chose to leave them with security staff. The fate of the cockroaches is unknown.

This is not the first time security officials have been faced with a nasty surprise at an x-ray checkpoint.

In August, security officials discovered a man was transporting two human arms after the limbs showed up on a bus station x-ray scanner.

Reporting by Kerry Allen

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