A young girl has left doctors in Yemen speechless after crying small stones instead of tears.

Saadiya Saleh, 12, produces tiny, hard stones beneath her eyelids, which are naturally pushed to the front of her eyes before falling onto her face.

A video of the strange phenomenon has been posted on YouTube by the Yemeni news channel Azal.

The doctor holds up a box of stones collected from Saadiya's eyes over a period of a few hours, before wiping another from the girl's face onto a piece of paper.

Girl Cries Stones
Is it unknown whether Saadiya Saleh's stones are a hoax or an unusual medical condition YouTube

Although Saadiya's eyes water as they are held open by doctors, she does not seem distressed by the stones. According to doctors, there is no explanation as to why Saadiya produces the objects. There is no known disease or condition of which the stones are a symptom.

However, several locals from Saadiya's village have claimed the young girl is possessed by magic. In the video, a presenter says: "The case has triggered panic in the area where this girl lives.

"Some say the girl could be gripped by a magic spell, while others say it might be the devil."

The presenter adds: "Others fear it could be the start of a dangerous epidemic."

In 1996, it was reported that Hasnah Mohamed Meselmani, a 12-year-old Lebanese girl, supposedly suffered from a similar condition. She produced razor-sharp crystals from her eyes, between March and November.

After Hasnah's condition made the headlines, she admitted that the miracle was down to Maitreya, her mother. However, questions arose over how the girl managed to pull off the stunt in full view of the cameras. Filmed close up, Hasnah's eye shows pieces of glass slowly being pushed out of her retinas.

In 2010, a story circulated about a 14-year-old Indian girl called Twinkle Dwivedi, who cried blood. It oozed from her eyes, and also her hairline, her palms and the soles of her feet, without any sign of scratch marks.

However, it was revealed nobody had ever directly witnessed the bleeding. It was uncovered that the pattern seemed to match her menstrual cycle, which could explain where Twinkle got the blood from to apply to different parts of her body.

Soon after this information was revealed, Twinkle stated her school life had been unpleasant and she had been lonely, which led critics to believe she had covered her body in blood for attention.