13 nails and five needles surgically removed

Doctors have removed 13 nails and five needles from a Sri Lankan maid who claimed the couple she worked for in Saudi Arabia hammered them into her.

LG Ariyawathi, hospitalised with severe pain after returning on Saturday from Saudi Arabia where she took up a job in March, said the family she worked for punished her by heating nails and needles then sticking them into her.

X-rays showed she had 24 nails and needles in her body, said Dr Keerthi Satharasinghe of Kamburupitiya hospital, 100 miles from the capital, Colombo.

The nails ranged in length from one to two inches while the needles were about an inch long. They were removed from her legs and forehead.

"The surgery is successful and she is recovering now," Dr Satharasinghe said after the three-hour procedure.

He said six more needles in her hands could not be removed because the operation might damage her nerves and arteries.

Ms Ariyawathi, 49, said of her employers: "They did not allow me even to rest. The woman at the house had heated the nails and then the man inserted them into my body".