PERUVIAN surgeons have performed a preliminary operation to separate the fused legs of a nine-month-old girl known as the “baby mermaid” because of her rare birth defect.

Milagros Cerron smiles, babbles and fidgets in the arms of her mother like any healthy nine-month-old, but she is no ordinary baby.

A Peruvian medical team is preparing for a pioneering operation to separate the fused legs of a nine-month-old girl born with a rare condition known as sirenomelia, or “mermaid syndrome”.