The recipient, Almerina Mascarello, who lost her left hand in an accident nearly a quarter of a century ago, said "it's almost like it's back again".

In 2014 the same international team produced the world's first feeling bionic hand.

But the sensory and computer equipment it was linked to was too large to leave the laboratory.

Now the technology is small enough to fit in a rucksack, making it portable.

The development team included engineers, neuroscientists, surgeons, electronics and robotics specialists from Italy, Switzerland and Germany.