Maternity staff at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital are celebrating after successfully delivering the UK's first set of quintuplets for more than a decade.

A team of 20 doctors and nurses took 20 minutes to deliver the five little girls, who were born 14 weeks early and needed special care.

The 29-year-old mother, who has not been named, is a Russian music teacher who contacted the hospital for help after being advised by doctors in her own country to have selective terminations.

She rejected the procedure, to reduce the number of foetuses in her womb, due to her religious beliefs.

The hospital's senior obstetrician, Lawrence Impey, who led the Caesarean section in the early hours of Saturday morning, said the woman arrived in Oxford 15 weeks into her pregnancy.

She received intensive outpatient care at the Oxford Foetal Medicine Unit to prolong the pregnancy as long as possible until three days before the births, when she started contractions.

Last night, Mr Impey told the Oxford Mail: "This hospital has its problems, but we have an international reputation for the quality of care patients receive here.

"The delivery was like a relay race, with a team looking after each baby.

"One room on the labour ward was set up with five resuscitaires and a runner would take each baby as they were born every 30 seconds.

"It was very exciting. All the staff had volunteered to come in and help and there was a definite party atmosphere when they were all born."

All five children, who weighed between 1lb 13oz and 2lb 2oz, were named straight after they were born - and immediately baptised by their maternal grandfather, who is a Russian Orthodox priest.

They were transferred to the special care baby unit and two have now been moved to Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London, which offered to help with the neonatal care.

Their mother, who lost one child during a previous pregnancy and is in the UK with her husband, is said to be doing well.

She has been discharged, but will stay in the country until her children are well enough to travel back to Russia.

Mr Impey said she and the babies' care cost "hundreds of thousands of pounds" and was being paid for by a group of Russian philanthropists.

He added: "The real work began after their births, but they were all quite stable quite quickly.

"Staff are working pretty hard with them now, but we're all so delighted because it looks so good for them all."

Such a large number of babies being born at once is extremely rare - with even twins being classed as high-risk - and there are no official records of quins being born in the UK between 1996 and 2006.