Investigations have begun over the birth of three children with hand deformities at a hospital in western Germany.

Between June and the beginning of September this year, the multiple occurrences of children with one-sided deformities have been called “striking” by the hospital.

“We have not seen deformities of this kind for many years,” they said. 

A midwife from the western German city of Cologne says “one midwife came across one case in her whole career”. 

“Three in three months is not normal,” she said.