South Korean scientists have used cloning techniques to create glow-in-the-dark dogs.

The four puppies look like typical beagles by day but glow red under ultraviolet light.

Their nails and abdomens, which have thin translucent skin, look red even to the naked eye.

Seoul National University professor Lee Byeong-chun, who headed the research team, said the technique of using fluorescent genes went beyond the novelty of glowing dogs.

He said: "What's significant in this work is not the dogs expressing red colours but that we planted genes into them.

"If we insert human disease-related genes in them, we can use them as great model to study diseases."

Scientists in the US, Japan and in Europe have previously cloned fluorescent mice and pigs, but this is the first time dogs with modified genes have been cloned successfully.

Professor Lee said his team took skin cells from a beagle, inserted a gene that produces a fluorescent red protein into them and put them into eggs before implanting them into the womb of a surrogate mother.

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