Two Czech couples have agreed to swap their ten-month-old baby daughters after discovering that they were mixed up at the hospital.

The muddle came to light after Libor Broza and his partner Jaroslava Trojanova grew sick of being teased by their friends about how such a dark-haired, brown-eyed couple could have given birth to such a blonde, blue-eyed little girl.

The mystery deepened when a suspicious Mr Broza secretly took a DNA test, that proved that he was not baby Nikola's father.

But when Ms Trojanova insisted that she too should take a DNA test and discovered that she was not Nikola's biological mother, an inquiry was launched.

A fortnight later they were told that Nikola's real parents were a couple called Jan and Jaroslava Cermakova, who lived in a village 20 miles away. The Cermakovas were bringing up a little girl called Veronika, who proved to be Mr Broza and Ms Trojanova's biological daughter. The news horrified both familes.

"It was a total shock. I just cried for two hours solid and Jaroslava was inconsolable," said Mr Broza, a lorry driver.

"It was just impossible to believe that this could happen. We have raised Nikola for the last ten months. She's a beautiful little girl who's always smiling and it's impossible to imagine her now living apart from us.

"But at the same time just 20 miles away lives our real daughter."

The families met for the first time last week, and compared notes. They discovered that Nikola and Veronika had been born within 18 minutes of each other at Trebic hospital, near the Czech border with Austria, on December 9 last year.

Both mothers had been concerned about their baby's weight - Ms Trojanova because Nikola, whose birth weight was recorded as 7lb 4oz (3.3kg), had shrunk to 5lb 12oz (2.65kg) by the following day, and Mrs Cermakova because baby Veronika had somehow put on 1lb 8oz overnight. But separately the nurses dismissed their fears, saying that the weight had probably been wrongly written down.

Mr Cermakova has a photo showing that baby Veronika's hospital tag had only a number on it, and not a name, making the mix-up easier.

The couples have bonded with the babies they brought home from hospital, and although they have agreed to swap them back they will do it gradually, spending more time together and making the switch before Christmas.

"The whole situation is just awful. You love your daughter, but at the end of the day, she is not yours," said Ms Trojanova.

"Nikola is my little angel and so far I don't have any feelings for Veronika - I wish I could live with both of them."

Mr Broza added: "Of course I want my child - everyone would. But we would like to get to know and visit that other family because we both love the girl we have now."

A police investigation has been launched, and the couples say they are going to launch a £250,000 legal action against the hospital. The hospital has declined to comment but Petr Mayer, the hospital director, delivered a written apology to the couples this week.

"We have missed so many milestones in Veronika's life - her first teeth and her first steps," said Mr Broza.

"Now we are determined not to miss her first birthday and her first Christmas."

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