A vet reconstructed a critically endangered turtle's shell after it was run over by a car in Thailand.

The injured animal was taken to Chanisa Ketbumrung by the worried driver Ladynook Hongupathamchai who accidentally hit it in her BMW last year.

Vets at the Get Well Pet Hospital in Ayutthaya repaired the yellow-headed temple turtle's carapace and it was released.

However, Ladynook monitored the turtle and found the exposed wound had still not healed.

She scooped up the 10kg turtle and took it back to the vets, who gave it a new reinforced shell.

The turtle - nicknamed BMW after the car it was hit by - was finally discharged this month and is being cared for by Ladynook, who is keeping it as a pet to avoid it from being injured in the wild again.

Ladynook said: 'I asked the vet to reconstruct the shell because the turtle would just keep getting infections if it stayed like that. It took around six months for it to recover from its wounds.'

Though she had initially planned to part ways with the turtle, Ladynook said she had grown attached and decided to keep it.

The turtle has been named 'BMW' after the vehicle that ran over it.

Ladynook added: 'I'll keep the turtle at home in my garden until it has fully recovered. If he can't survive in the wild, the local Buddhist temple will adopt him as there is a big garden and pond that it can use.'

The yellow-headed temple turtle, Heosemys annandalii, is a critically endangered species under the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. It is native to Southeast Asia and is said to have received its name because it is often found near Buddhist temples.