Officers arrested the woman after being tipped off that a person with drugs was on the flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

National police spokesman Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said: “The team immediately intercepted the drug mule as she was making her way through immigration.

“She was immediately arrested, taken to a local hospital where a medical X-ray confirmed and detected foreign objects in her stomach.

“She has already released more than 60 bullets of suspected cocaine thus far. She is currently under police guard and custody.”

Police said it was too early to speculate about the street value of the drugs haul.

More than $13 million rand ($1.2m) of drugs have been seized at the airport in the past two months.

Last week, police arrested a man with 450g of cocaine hidden inside headphones. The man had travelled from Sao Paulo and was due to catch a connecting flight to Nigeria.

A cleaner who allegedly handed him the headphones at the airport fled the scene and was on the run, police said at the time.