A MANOR PARK chemist has become one of the first to sell do-it-yourself DNA paternity test kits over the counter.

Bell Pharmacy in Romford Road started selling the �30 International Biosciences kits two weeks ago. Users take cell samples from the inside of the cheek and send them to a lab. For �119 the results are sent in five days.

A spokesman for the Medipharmacy Group, which owns Bell Pharmacy and other chemists in Essex and south-east London, said they believed the kits would soon be as common as pregnancy tests. In the USA paternity tests are bought in chemists.