Lydia Sebastian, 12, has achieved the maximum score in the Mensa Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test, beating the IQ scores of physicists Albert Einstein and Professor Stephen Hawking.

In the mental ability test, the 12-year-old girl has scored the maximum, which is 162. With this, she has created a record as the IQ score of Einstein and Hawking were 160.

Born to 43-year-old Arun, a radiologist at Colchester General Hospital, and mother Erika Kottiath, who is an associate director at Barclays Bank, Lydia started reading books when she was just a few years old.

"She also had an early interest in reading. When she was a few years old she was reading books that were for children several years older than her. And maths is her favourite subject. She won a prize for that when she was at primary school," her father told The Daily Mail.

Hailing from the south Indian state of Kerala and settled in Langham, Essex in the United Kingdom, Lydia's parents are astonished with the achievement of their daughter after the result was published on Friday, 28 August.

Lydia is a student at Colchester County High School in Essex.