The world's first recorded wild grey seals have been returned to the wild at Horsey Gap.

R2-D2 and C-3PO, had been brought into RSPCA East Winch, near King's Lynn, after they were found alone in the sand dunes by the Friends of Horsey seals when they were abandoned by their mother after people disturbed her.

The pair took to the sea to swim on Tuesday morning for the first time ever after they were returned to Horsey.

Manager at RSPCA East Winch, Alison Charles said: 'The reason we do this job is to help these animals back to full health and return them to the wild - so this was special.

'C-3PO and R2-D2 were under three-weeks-old when they came in and they still had their white lanugo coats.

'They weighed 24kg and 22kg respectively, so their mum had done a very good job of feeding them up to that point. We fed them a fish soup mixture every three hours via a stomach tube when they arrived.

'Observers always believed they were twins but it was only when we checked their DNA that we found they really were.'

The seals were loaded onto a trailer at RSPCA East Winch at 8am, arriving at Horsey Gap car park at 10am, before being moved in two vari kennels over the dunes to the beach to be released. RSPCA East Winch has had 66 other grey seal pups in the hospital this pupping season, and currently has 50 in care.

A DNA test in Norway confirmed that the two seals born at Horsey Gap were the first twins of their kind to be recorded in the world.