Two Greeks were yesterday being detained in New Delhi in connection with a probe into a human organ trading scandal, the Foreign Ministry in Athens said yesterday, noting that another Greek had been allowed to return home.

The two Greeks still in New Delhi are believed to have been would-be patients at an illegal clinic in Gurgaon, awaiting kidney transplants, according to a report in Ethnos newspaper. It is unclear whether the other Greek had visited India to undergo a transplant operation.

The three Greeks were found by Indian police who conducted a sweep of hospitals and homes in New Delhi, where hundreds of illegal kidney transplants are believed to have been carried out in the past decade.

Any Greeks who seek organ transplants abroad in this way are putting their lives at risk as safety regulations are not adhered to at illegal clinics, the National Transplant Organization said yesterday.