Beijing, Dec 1 (IANS): Customs officials at a Chinese airport found 200 live cockroaches in an elderly couple's luggage.

According to the Beijing Youth Daily, security at southern Guangdong's Baiyun International Airport noticed movement in the couple's luggage when they placed their bags through an x-ray machine on November 25.

"There was a white plastic bag with lots of black items moving inside," security guard Xu Yuyu told Kankan News.

"One of the staff opened their luggage and a roach crawled out of it. She almost cried," the guard added.

Asked why they were transporting the cockroaches, the husband told officials that they were an ointment for his wife's skin, the BBC reported on Thursday.

The man did not specify what her condition was, but officials were told: "They were part of an old folk remedy. You mix the roaches in some medicinal cream and put it on your skin."

As living organisms were not permitted in on-flight hand luggage, the couple chose to leave them with the security staff.

This is not the first time security officials had an unpleasant surprise at an x-ray checkpoint. In August, a man was found transporting two human arms after the limbs showed up on a bus station x-ray scanner.