Serbian boy woke up speaking English

Schoolboy Dimitrije Mitrovic baffled his family and teachers in Serbia when he woke up speaking only English - despite never being taught a word of the language. Mum Dragana says her son simply got out of bed one morning at the family home in Nis and began talking to her in perfect English.

Dimitrij - now 11 - is so word perfect that his family, friends and even his teachers can no longer understand him. "One day when he was only three years old, he just got out of bed and started to talk to me in English. I know some English so I could understand a bit but he was soon so good I had to get a translator to speak to him for me," explained his mum.

By the time he was five, Dimitrije was reciting entire Harry Potter novels to his pals in English and now he rarely speaks his mother tongue unless he has to. "I dream in English, speak it, and if stub my toe I'll curse in English too," he said.

Baffled medics believe Dimitrije may have acquired some sort of autistic talent for the language. "He is absolutely normal in every other way and a very nice young boy. He just seems to think he's English," said mum Dragana. English language expert Professor Tatjana Paunovic from Nis University explained: "It is fascinating. We have talked to him for an hour in English and he speaks the language better than we do, like he was born speaking it."