A family have found their missing pet tortoise in a store room – more than 30 years after they lost her.

Manuela disappeared from her home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1982 and despite a lengthy search was never seen again.

Her owners, the Almeida family, assumed she had run away after builders working on the house left the front door open.

It was only after their father Leonel died earlier this month that the Almeida children began clearing out a second-floor room in the house that had always been kept locked.

Leonel's son Leandro said he was astonished to find Manuela alive inside a box containing an old record player.

He told a Brazilian website: "I put the box on the pavement for the rubbish men to collect, and a neighbour said, "you're not throwing out the tortoise as well are you?"