Septuplet couple 'need support'

An Egyptian woman who has given birth to septuplets says she might need financial support to help raise them.

Ghazala Khamis, 27, fears that the wages of her farmer husband - reported to be $4 (£2.14) a day - may not be enough to support her brood.

The four boys and three girls she gave birth to on the weekend join the three daughters the couple already had.

The new parents said the government had pledged to provide nappies and milk for their septuplets' first two years.

"I don't want them to be farmers, I want them to be educated and well-off"
Septuplets' father

"For their sake, I hope we can have an apartment close to doctors' surgeries because in our village they are a long way from where we live," said Ms Khamis, who lives in a village in the northern province of Beheira.

"I want someone to help me provide them with food and clothes. Their father is a farm worker so there is no one to help me looking after them."

The children's father has high aspirations for his new children.

"I want them to get education and be successful. I don't want them to be farmers, I want them to be educated and well-off," he said.

The newborns, who weighed between 2.3lb and 4lb (1.5kg and 2kg), were delivered by Caesarean section on Saturday in a hospital in Alexandria.

They were being kept in incubators as they were delivered before the pregnancy went to full term.