Security measures "failed" in preventing a major jewellery heist in the Louvre museum in Paris on Sunday, creating a very negative image of the country, the French justice minister has said.

"People were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes to grab priceless jewels and give France a terrible image," Gérald Darmanin said.

Thieves wielding power tools broke into the world's most-visited museum in broad daylight, stealing eight items described as being of inestimable value, before escaping on scooters.

There are fears that unless the thieves are caught quickly, the priceless items - including a diamond and emerald necklace Emperor Napoleon gave to his wife - will be broken up and smuggled out of the country.

Darmanin told France Inter radio he was certain police would eventually arrest the thieves.

But the head of an organisation specialising in the location and recovery of stolen and looted artworks warned that if the thieves are not caught in the next 24 to 48 hours, the stolen jewellery will likely be "long gone".

"There is a race going on right now," Chris Marinello, the chief executive of Art Recovery International, told BBC World Service's Newshour programme.

Crowns and diadems - which were stolen in the heist - can easily be broken apart and sold in small parts.

The thieves "are not going to keep them intact, they are going to break them up, melt down the valuable metal, recut the valuable stones and hide evidence of their crime," Mr Marinello said, adding it would be difficult to sell these jewels intact.

The French police "know that in the next 24 or 48 hours, if these thieves are not caught, those pieces are probably long gone," he said.

"They may catch the criminals but they won't recover the jewels."

The theft took place between 09:30 and 09:40 local time on Sunday morning, shortly after the museum opened to visitors.

Four masked thieves used a truck equipped with a mechanical lift to gain access to the Galerie d'Apollon (Gallery of Apollo) via a balcony close to the River Seine.

Pictures from the scene showed a vehicle-mounted ladder leading up to a first-floor window.

Two of the thieves cut through glass panes with a battery-powered disc cutter and entered the museum.

They then threatened the guards, who evacuated the building.

The thieves smashed the glass display cases and stole the jewels, which collectively contained thousands of diamonds and precious gemstones.

The robbery took just seven minutes.

As the museum's alarms started blaring, staff followed protocol by contacting security forces, the culture ministry said in a statement.

The thieves had tried to set fire to their vehicle outside but were prevented by the intervention of a museum staff-member, it added.

Eight items of jewellery were stolen in total, including an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon gave his wife, Empress Marie Louise.

Also taken was a diadem (jewelled headband) that once belonged to the Empress Eugénie - wife of Napoleon III - which has nearly 2,000 diamonds.

They also took a necklace that once belonged to Marie-Amelie, the last queen of France, and which contains eight sapphires and 631 diamonds, according to the Louvre's website.

Australia has accused a Chinese military aircraft of releasing flares "in close proximity" to its patrol jet over the South China Sea.

The Australian government has raised its concern with Beijing over the "unsafe and unprofessional" manoeuvre, the defence department said in a statement on Monday.

There was no damage to Australia's P-8A aircraft and its personnel were unharmed after Sunday's encounter.

"Australia expects all countries, including China, to operate their militaries in a safe and professional manner," Australia Defrence Force said.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry was unaware of the incident when asked by reporters.

This is the latest in a string of encounters between the two countries' militaries in the region, where China's vast claims over islands and outcrops overlap with those of its neighbours.

Sunday's incident also occurred as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was heading to the US for a meeting with President Donald Trump, where the two leaders are expected to discuss the Aukus - a multi-billion dollar submarine deal between Australia, the US and the UK.

Australia has also accused a Chinese jet of dropping flares near an Australian plane in the area in February. China at that time said the Australian jet had intentionally intruded into its airspace and that its response was "lawful and restrained".

While it has no claims to the South China Sea, Australia has aligned itself close to the US and its allies in saying that China's assertions have no legal basis.

In May last year, Australia accused a Chinese fighter plane of dropping flares close to an Australian navy helicopter that was part of a UN Security Council mission on the Yellow Sea off the Korean coastline.

In November 2023, Canberra accused Beijing's navy of using sonar pulses in international waters off Japan, which resulted in injuries to Australian divers.

Bolivia has elected a centrist senator, Rodrigo Paz, as its next president, bringing an end to nearly 20 years of continuous rule by the Movement for Socialism (Mas) party.

With almost all votes counted, Paz, of the Christian Democratic Party, defeated right-wing candidate Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga in Sunday's run-off election with a share of 54.6%.

A severe economic crisis and infighting within Mas, which has dominated Bolivian politics since 2006, saw many voters wanting change.

Paz has said he will end fuel shortages and address Bolivia's wider economic problems. In his victory speech, he said he would open up Bolivia to wider international investment and stimulate private-sector growth.

Paz, 58, went from being a surprise frontrunner in the first round of the election in August to achieving a clear win over Tuto Quiroga, who received 45.4% of the votes in the run-off.

The candidate for Mas did not make it into the run-off.

Paz is perceived as relatively moderate and centrist compared to his opponent, making him more attractive to undecided and disillusioned left-leaning voters, who wanted change but did not want to cast their vote for Quiroga.

Quiroga has conceded defeat and has called his rival to congratulate him.

Paz's supporters took to the streets of La Paz, the country's administrative capital, to celebrate the result.

One of them told AFP news agency "we came to celebrate the victory with great hope of a new direction for Bolivia".

Bolivia is grappling with severe shortages of fuel leading to long queues at petrol stations, a shortage of US dollars, and soaring inflation. Natural gas exports, which were once a major source of revenue for Bolivia, have also plummeted.

Paz campaigned with the slogan "capitalism for all", promising free-market reforms and a commitment to help the poorest in society with social programmes.

He has pledged to ease access to credit for small businesses, lower certain taxes, reduce import tariffs, crack down on corruption, and decentralise the government.

He has also been clear that once in power, he plans to cut fuel subsidies, which he says are unsustainable.

The subsidies have kept fuel prices relatively low but - because they mean that fuel is being sold at prices below import costs - have also lead to shortages and huge queues at pumps.

Bolivia has been relatively isolated on the world stage in recent years but Paz's election victory could signal a thawing of relations between Bolivia and the United States, which have not had a formal diplomatic relationship since 2008.

Relations between the two countries have been strained since 2008 when Bolivia's then-president Evo Morales expelled the US ambassador and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for allegedly conspiring against his government.

The US has repeatedly accused Bolivia, one of the world's top producers of cocaine, of not meeting its anti-narcotics obligations, and has long criticised its recognition of Venezuela's president Nicolás Maduro, whose last election was widely condemned internationally as being neither free nor fair.

Reacting to Paz's election win, the US State Department said it looked forward "to partnering with President-elect @Rodrigo_PazP to restore economic stability, expand private-sector growth, and strengthen security".

Once he takes office, Paz may make the calculation that distancing the country from allies including Venezuela and Cuba could help rebuild relations with US.

Regarding China, an important trade partner for Bolivia which is the source of many imports and a key destination for Bolivia's minerals and lithium exports, Paz will likely try to secure new foreign investment and exports.

Paz's choice of running mate is thought to have helped him attract working-class voters and Bolivian's frustrated with government corruption.

A former police captain, vice president-elect Edman Lara is known for his humble upbringings and whistleblowing on police corruption. He also a strong social media following.

In the months leading up to the vote, Mas's popularity had been undermined by bitter divisions between two of its best known figures: the former president, Evo Morales, and the outgoing president, Luis Arce.

Morales, who governed from 2006-2019, was disqualified from running in this election due to a ruling that limits presidents to two terms in office. As Morales has served a total of three terms as president - one before the constitutional two-term limit came into force - he was not able to stand again for the top job.

Accused of statutory rape and fathering a child with a teenager - allegations he denies and says are politically motivated - he has been living in his stronghold of Chapare, where he is protected by his loyal supporters who have at times staged protests and roadblocks around the country leading to clashes.

As voting is mandatory in Bolivia, he urged his supporters to spoil their votes rather than cast a ballot paper for either of the two candidates in the run-off.

For many Bolivians, this election result reflects a desire for change and renewal. But Paz inherits tough economic circumstances and a bitterly divided country.

Restoring economic credibility and uniting a country polarised into many factions after years of political turmoil will not be an easy task.

Paz will take office on 8 November 2025.

Molly Lee is talking to me about the tales her aunt Nelle, known to the world as Harper Lee, would weave for her when she was a little girl. "She was just a great storyteller," says the 77-year-old from her home in Alabama.

That's an understatement if the success of Harper Lee's Pulitzer-prize winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird is anything to go by. Since its publication in 1960, when it was an instant hit, the book has sold more than 42 million copies worldwide

Based around the story of Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of rape, it's told through the eyes of two white children, Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch and her brother Jem - and is often described as an American classic.

But at the point Molly is describing, before the world had heard of Lee, she was simply an aunt enchanting her niece with stories, often by riffing on one of her favourite authors, the British novelist Daphne Du Maurier.

"The stories that she told me, she would make them up but they all seemed to be based around, 'It was a dark and stormy night'... It seemed to me they were always on the moor and she would just take me into the dark," Molly says.

Molly's cousin is 77-year-old Ed Lee Conner. His earliest memories of his aunt date back to the late 1940s, when he was tiny. "She sang to me in a way that was very funny," he recalls. "And I laughed."

He gives me a rendition, half-singing I've Got a Little List from the musical The Mikado. Ed says he only realised much later that "she was singing to me songs from Gilbert and Sullivan", the Victorian-era duo Lee "adored" all her life.

It seems some of Lee's influences were British, even if her roots were in Monroeville, Alabama at a time of strict segregation, when schools, churches and restaurants were divided on race lines.

The cousins are sharing their memories of their aunt - who died in 2016 - on the eve of the publication of a new book, The Land of Sweet Forever.

It's a series of newly discovered short stories Lee wrote in the years before Mockingbird, as well as previously published essays and magazine pieces.

Ed explains: "I knew there were unpublished stories, I had no idea where the manuscripts of those stories were."

They were discovered in one of his aunt's New York City apartments after she died, a time capsule from the start of Lee's career which help explain how a young woman from Alabama became a best-selling author whose work addressed the turbulent issues of her age.

Molly is "very pleased" that the stories have been found. "I think it's interesting to see how her writing evolved and how she worked on her craft," she says. "Even I can tell how she improved."

Some elements will be familiar to fans of To Kill A Mockingbird.

Versions of Jean Louise Finch appear, although she hasn't gained her nickname Scout yet.

In one of the stories, The Pinking Shears, the character is a spirited little girl called Jean Louie who gives a friend a haircut and faces the wrath of the child's father. Perhaps a hint of the forthright Scout to come?

In another, The Binoculars, a child starting school is berated by the teacher for already knowing how to read. A version of that story appears early on in Mockingbird.

Some of them are set in Maycomb, Alabama, the fictional town which also stands for Monroeville in To Kill A Mockingbird.

Ed, who's a retired English professor, calls them "apprentice stories" which aren't "the fullest expression of her genius and yet there's genius in them".

"She was a brilliant writer in the making and you see something of her brilliance in these stories."

I found one, The Cat's Meow, an unsettling read through a modern lens. Set in Maycomb, it sees two siblings, clearly Lee and her older sister Alice, confounded by her sister's black gardener Arthur, who's from the North but has apparently decided to work in the segregationist South. The older sister tells the younger one he's a "Yankee" who has "as much education as you have".

Written in 1957, seven years before the groundbreaking Civil Rights Act of 1964, Lee's own approach to the civil rights movement appears to be evolving.

Some of the language in the story and at times, even the narrator's own attitudes, are uncomfortable to read.

Ed thinks that's a "fair assessment"

He points to Go Set A Watchman, the novel Lee published just a year before she died after the manuscript was found decades after she wrote it.

As liberal as the narrator thinks she is, "she's not entirely liberated from her own prejudices, let's put it that way", Ed says.

"And I don't say that in any demeaning sense because for white southerners, it's not easy to rid ourselves of all the prejudices that we have born over the centuries."

The publication of Go Set A Watchman sparked controversy. Atticus Finch, the anti-racist hero of To Kill A Mockingbird, is portrayed as a racist.

There were questions about whether Lee, who had significant health issues by then, had the capacity to give full consent. (An investigation by the state of Alabama found claims of elder abuse were unfounded).

I ask whether it's an invasion of Lee's privacy to publish posthumously these stories that Lee didn't choose to make public in her lifetime. Ed Lee Conner is clear that, when it comes to The Land of Sweet Forever, "that's an easy judgment to make, she attempted to publish all these stories".

And he believes - like Mockingbird - the stories have something to say about modern race relations in the US which is "part of the continuing relevance of what she wrote".

To Kill A Mockingbird "had a huge influence on the way a lot of people thought about race relations in the United States".

Writing a book about a black man's struggle that's centred on white characters, particularly Atticus Finch, the white lawyer played by Gregory Peck in the 1962 film, has led, in later years, to accusations of white saviourism.

Ed tells me his aunt "was writing a novel primarily for a white audience who I think would need to see a figure like Atticus Finch much more clearly and much more humanly in their lives, even as a fictional character, in order to influence them as much as she could".

In an interview in 1964 for the New York radio station WQXR, Harper Lee described the "sheer numbness" she felt at the reaction to her debut novel.

"I never expected that the book would sell in the first place," she said. "I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers. I was hoping that maybe somebody might like it well enough to give me some encouragement about it."

Ed's side of the family had been given it in proof, ahead of publication. At age 13, he read the whole book in two days. "I was absolutely enthralled and it was one of the highlights of my youth."

He says the whole family shared her feelings of numbness at its reception. "We all loved it and thought it was a terrific novel, but we had no idea... that it would go on to be as phenomenal a success as it was."

Harper Lee had looked after Molly and her brother while she was writing it. "She was in her bedroom typing away and she locked the door and she'd come out and play with us and then go back to typing."

When Molly read the book, as a 12-year-old, "I'm not sure that I ever looked up from it. I was totally engrossed."

I play them part of the WQXR interview that their aunt did four years after the book came out. It's the only known recording of Harper Lee talking about To Kill A Mockingbird.

She retired from public life soon afterwards. Ed says she wasn't a recluse as some have suggested and was very sociable with the people she knew. She'd simply realised, after the novel's success and then the hugely popular film, that she didn't need to promote it anymore.

"She did not particularly enjoy public appearances," he recalls. "She had no interest whatsoever in being a celebrity. So there was a point at which she decided no more interviews."

Listening to her speaking on this precious recording is its own time capsule.

In her soft southern accent, melodic and lilting, she talks not just about being numbed at the reaction to the book, but also why she believes the southern states are "a region of storytellers" and how she wants to be "a Jane Austen of South Alabama".

Hearing her voice again "just makes me smile," Molly says.

"I love hearing it," agrees Ed, clearly moved. "It's wonderful."

The Land of Sweet Forever by Harper Lee is published on 21 October 2025.

A South Korean court has sentenced a teacher to life in prison for fatally stabbing an eight-year-old girl, in a case that shocked the nation.

Myeong Jae-wan, 48, killed Kim Hae-neul, after luring her into a classroom in the central city of Daejeon in February.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Myeong, saying that the victim's family had asked for a harsh punishment.

But the court said that while "the risk of reoffending is high, it is difficult to conclude" that Myeong must be executed.

Myeong said that she would reflect on her mistakes for the rest of her life.

She said her judgement had weakened at the time of the stabbing as she was receiving mental health treatment.

Prosecutors said Myeong showed no remorse while the case was being investigated. However, Myeong submitted dozens of letters to the court expressing remorse.

Myeong had previously requested a six-month leave of absence, citing depression, but returned to school in 20 days, after a doctor assessed her as being fit to work, the Daejeon education office said in February.

She had displayed violent behaviour in the days before the stabbing, including putting another teacher in a headlock, the education office said.

On the morning of the stabbing, two education officials had visited the school to investigate that earlier altercation.

Myeong told police that she had bought a weapon on the day of the attack and brought it to school, planning to kill herself along with a random child.

She also told the police that she had lured Kim into the media room before attacking her.

Kim, the student, student was reported missing after a bus driver informed the school that she had not arrived to be picked up that day. She was found in school later that day with stab wounds, along with Myeong.

Myeong also had a wound on her neck, which police said might have been self-inflicted. It was stitched up later in hospital.

South Korea's leaders at the time called for safety measures to ensure such incidents never happen again.

Myeong has also been ordered to wear an electronic location tracking device for 30 years.

"As an elementary school teacher, the accused was in a position to protect the victim," said the court's verdict on Monday. "But she committed this brutal crime in which a child was not protected where they should be most safe."

Security measures "failed" in preventing a major jewellery heist in the Louvre museum in Paris on Sunday, creating a very negative image of the country, the French justice minister has said.

"People were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes to grab priceless jewels and give France a terrible image," Gérald Darmanin said.

Thieves wielding power tools broke into the world's most-visited museum in broad daylight, stealing eight items described as being of inestimable value, before escaping on scooters.

There are fears that unless the thieves are caught quickly, the priceless items - including a diamond and emerald necklace Emperor Napoleon gave to his wife - will be broken up and smuggled out of the country.

Darmanin told France Inter radio he was certain police would eventually arrest the thieves.

But the head of an organisation specialising in the location and recovery of stolen and looted artworks warned that if the thieves are not caught in the next 24 to 48 hours, the stolen jewellery will likely be "long gone".

"There is a race going on right now," Chris Marinello, the chief executive of Art Recovery International, told BBC World Service's Newshour programme.

Crowns and diadems - which were stolen in the heist - can easily be broken apart and sold in small parts.

The thieves "are not going to keep them intact, they are going to break them up, melt down the valuable metal, recut the valuable stones and hide evidence of their crime," Mr Marinello said, adding it would be difficult to sell these jewels intact.

The French police "know that in the next 24 or 48 hours, if these thieves are not caught, those pieces are probably long gone," he said.

"They may catch the criminals but they won't recover the jewels."

The theft took place between 09:30 and 09:40 local time on Sunday morning, shortly after the museum opened to visitors.

Four masked thieves used a truck equipped with a mechanical lift to gain access to the Galerie d'Apollon (Gallery of Apollo) via a balcony close to the River Seine.

Pictures from the scene showed a vehicle-mounted ladder leading up to a first-floor window.

Two of the thieves cut through glass panes with a battery-powered disc cutter and entered the museum.

They then threatened the guards, who evacuated the building.

The thieves smashed the glass display cases and stole the jewels, which collectively contained thousands of diamonds and precious gemstones.

The robbery took just seven minutes.

As the museum's alarms started blaring, staff followed protocol by contacting security forces, the culture ministry said in a statement.

The thieves had tried to set fire to their vehicle outside but were prevented by the intervention of a museum staff-member, it added.

Eight items of jewellery were stolen in total, including an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon gave his wife, Empress Marie Louise.

Also taken was a diadem (jewelled headband) that once belonged to the Empress Eugénie - wife of Napoleon III - which has nearly 2,000 diamonds.

They also took a necklace that once belonged to Marie-Amelie, the last queen of France, and which contains eight sapphires and 631 diamonds, according to the Louvre's website.

The Louvre Museum in Paris has been forced to close while police investigate a brazen heist which reportedly targeted France's priceless crown jewels.

Thieves wielding power tools broke into the world's most visited museum in broad daylight, before escaping on scooters with items said to be of "incalculable" value.

Here is what we know about the crime which has stunned France.

How did the theft unfold?

The theft occurred on Sunday between 09:30 and 09:40 local time, shortly after the museum opened to visitors.

The thieves appear to have used a mechanical ladder to gain access to the Galerie d'Apollon via a balcony close to the River Seine.

Pictures from the scene showed a vehicle-mounted ladder leading up to a first-floor window.

The thieves are then said to have cut through glass panes with an angle grinder or chainsaw to gain access to the museum.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati told French news outlet TF1 that footage of the theft showed the masked robbers entering "calmly" and smashing display cases containing the jewels.

No one was injured in the incident, with Dati saying there been "no violence, very professional".

She described the thieves as seemingly being "experienced" with a well-prepared plan to flee on scooters.

Investigators believe three or four suspects were involved and are studying CCTV footage from the escape route.

The whole raid happened "very, very fast", Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told France Inter radio, and was over in a handful of minutes.

One witness described scenes of "total panic" as the museum was evacuated. Later images showed entrances closed off with metal gates.

What was stolen

French authorities have not confirmed which items were taken but the wing which was targeted houses jewels and riches from France's royal past.

Dati said one item was found outside the museum, apparently having been dropped during the escape. Le Parisien newspaper reported it may have been the crown of Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III.

The newspaper said the Regent Diamond - the 140-carat centrepiece of the gallery - was not stolen.

BFM reported that the stolen pieces were believed to include jewels belonging to Napoleon III, and that a second cabinet containing other regal treasures may also have been targeted.

Nuñez described the stolen jewels "priceless" and "of immeasurable heritage value".

Have similar thefts happened before?

In 1911, an Italian museum employee was able to make off with the Mona Lisa under his coat after lifting the painting - which was then little-known to the public - straight off the wall of a quiet gallery.

It was recovered after two years and the culprit later said he was motivated by the belief the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece belonged in Italy.

Fewer chances are taken with the Mona Lisa these days: the painting, perhaps the most renowned in the museum's collection, hangs in a high-security glass compartment.

In 1998, the Le Chemin de Sevres - a 19th century painting by Camille Corot - was stolen and has never been found. The incident prompted a massive overhaul of museum security.

There has been a recent spate of thefts targeting French museums.

Last month, thieves broke into the Adrien Dubouche Museum in Limoges and stole porcelain works reputedly worth €9.5m ($11m / £8.25m).

In November 2024, seven items of "great historic and heritage value" were stolen from the Cognacq-Jay Museum in the capital. Five were recovered a few days ago.

The same month, armed robbers raided the Hieron Museum in Burgundy, firing shots before escaping with millions of pounds worth of 20th century artworks.

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A growing number of young people are choosing to study in Eastern Europe due to a strict cap on medical school places in the UK.

Freya Mandapalli from Preston is one of them.

The 19-year-old has healthcare in her blood. Her parents both work at the local hospital and her older sister studied medicine at Edinburgh and now works as a doctor.

"I just got inspired by her really," Freya said.

But getting into a medical school in the UK generally requires a minimum of three As at A-level and high grades in other subjects and Freya struggled to get them.

Although she got interviews, she didn't receive any offers.

She considered a gap year but then a family friend mentioned the possibility of studying in Plovdiv, in Southern Bulgaria.

"I was really nervous to start with, but the city's beautiful and I've found some great friends," added Freya, who has just started her second year of a medical degree.

In England around 8,126 medical students started this academic year, just over a thousand of them in the North West.

This is sharply up from two years ago when it was just 7,010 but still far short of the 15,000 the government says it needs for England by 2031 to meet demand.

But with the cap on medical school places, it means competition to get one is intense, and many students are voting with their feet.

'Word of mouth'

Mohammed Adnaan Patel from Bolton has just started his fifth year at the same university in Plovdiv. He too found the course through word of mouth.

"One of my friends told me that his brother already studies within Bulgaria and he was planning on going himself," he said.

"My mother was very worried, my father wanted me to stay strong and be independent, but the rest of my family didn't know what to expect. But those worries gradually subsided."

The Medical University of Plovdiv is one of Bulgaria's most prestigious medical schools and attracts many more applicants than it admits. Although it does ask for academic qualifications, a large part of the admissions process hangs on an entrance exam.

Veselina Goranova, vice rector for Education, says their students' home countries include Greece, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Canada, the US – but added the biggest group by far, "about 40% come from the UK".

That may be in part because classes for international students are held in English but also because a well-established network of agencies now exist to help those hoping to make the leap.

Dr Muhammad Hamza from Blackburn graduated from Plovdiv last year and is currently back there helping to settle new students.

He works with MedConnect Europe Ltd, an agency headquartered in London but with offices around Eastern Europe.

He says the agency helps new students navigate the complications of a new life abroad like finding a flat, dealing with paperwork, and sorting out life's essentials.

"We get them in touch with the estate agents, we book the flights for them. Our representatives will be there at the airport to collect them, take them to the hotels," he said.

Strict timetable

"We help them with shopping – buying bedding, cutlery..wifi, mobile sims, setting them up. Because they don't know the language and we have representatives in each country which do know the language it becomes so much easier," he added.

Dr Hamza spends most of his time working as a private dentist in Chorley, where he spends a year with a mentor.

The firm, he says, came out to Plovdiv to recruit dentists there.

"It's probably because of the vast practical experience we get in Bulgaria," he said, adding that the Bulgarian system requires students to complete large numbers of relatively complex procedures.

"So going and starting as a dentist in the UK, I already had somewhat of a solid foundation."

New students need to get used to a strict timetable which often begins at 7.30am and may not finish until 6pm.

They also need to study Bulgarian so they can talk to the patients they will be treating in the last three years of their course.

Bulgarian, like Russian, uses the Cyrillic alphabet, and a complex grammar structure.

Milena Muleshkova is one of those tasked with getting the students up to scratch.

She says that first year is about everyday communication, while the second-year concentrates on medical terms.

Medical courses in Bulgaria last six years, one year longer than in the UK but common in mainland Europe.

At the end of it, successful students have a degree which is recognised by the General Medical Council in England, and which allows them to practice in the NHS without any further tests.

BBC World Service: Why are medical students going to Bulgaria?

This may change though in 2028 when Britain next looks at its agreements with the EU.

And another potential change is particularly worrying some students.

The NHS has become increasingly reliant on attracting healthcare staff from overseas to meet increasing patient demand.

In 2023 68% of doctors joining the NHS were international medical graduates (IMGs) and the number has been rising year on year.

Currently the NHS treats applicants from overseas and the UK in the same way for jobs and training opportunities.

This has become an increasingly contentious issue for resident (formerly known as junior) doctors in England who say many at the beginning of their career are being denied the opportunity to progress.

Earlier this month they voted to strike over the shortage of speciality training places.

But the doctors' union the British Medical Association wants UK graduates to be prioritised for those training posts.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting says he agrees.

But this could mean British students studying abroad would also be looked at less favourably because they would also be classed as IMGs.

'It's quite scary'

Mohammed Adnaan Patel said he did have sympathy with much of the argument but not all.

He said: "It's quite a topic of frequent discussion as the years go on as we get closer to that stage,"

"It is quite scary. It does raise a lot of anxiety within the students and myself."

But the NHS also has difficulty keeping hold of medical staff.

Last year in the North West of England one in ten left - although that was actually better than the year before.

Some will have left the profession altogether but some will have been tempted away by similar jobs in Canada, Australia, and the gulf states, who also run international recruitment campaigns.

As the global population ages and healthcare needs increase, the international fight to attract trained medical staff, wherever they come from, is likely to intensify.

Dr Muhammad Hamza from MedConnect Europe says he doesn't see the demand for European students slowing any time soon.

He said: "I see it growing because the demand for doctors and dentists, not only in the UK is a lot but all over the world"

"I don't see it slowing down. It's going to expand further and further."

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