6-year-old eats her own flesh to survive

A six-year-old US girl, who was kept in a cage almost starved to death by her own parents, was found eating her own flesh to survive.

Brian and Shannon Gore, a Virginia couple, are accused of keeping their daughter in shocking conditions and virtually starving her to death, reports Courier Mail.

The girl was so hungry that when police found her she was eating the flaky skin of her forehead.

She was covered in bedsores and her own faeces. She was unable to walk after being freed from the crudely built cage.

Doctors treating the girl told police if they had found her a week later she would have died from starvation.

Gore told police the girl had been kept in the cage since last summer.

Gore and his 24-year-old wife told police the girl suffered from Downs Syndrome and had cerebral palsy.

They claimed she was kept locked in a cage to protect her.

After interrogating the couple, police also discovered remains of a second child buried under the home.