Suspected 14th-century statue fished out of river in Spain

Sculpture of Virgin Mary and child discovered 11-days ago by an angler looking for trout

A week after a Nile crocodile was allegedly spotted in a river in north-west Spain, the country's waters have yielded an even more miraculous find in the mossy and somewhat eroded form of a granite statue of the Virgin Mary and child that could date from the 14th century.

The sculpture was discovered 11 days ago in the Sar River on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela by an angler looking for trout. What appeared to be a slimy rock at first sight could turn out to be a 700-year-old piece of Spanish religious history.