International and Ethiopian scientists have discovered what they say are the second oldest stone tools to have been found, Nature World News reports.

The tools, uncovered in the Afar region in north-east Ethiopia, are said to be 2.6 million years old.

Research associate on the project, David R Braun, told journalists in Ethiopia that the tools are "pieces of chipped stones" and they are 100,000 years older that another discovery in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian News Agency quotes him as saying.

The oldest stone tools ever discovered were found in Kenya and are 3.3 million years old.