Two-year-old Chinese boy is the world’s youngest cigarette smoker

Lighting up: Two-year-old Tong Liangliang began smoking at the age of 18 months. He is now on a packet of cigarettes a day

A two-year-old Chinese boy is thought to be the world’s youngest smoker.

According to reports, Tong Liangliang, who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, was taught to smoke by his father who believed that smoking would cure pain caused by a hernia.

Tong, who is known to throw tantrums if he is not given a cigarette, started smoking at 18-months after doctors told his parents he was too young to have an operation to reduce his discomfort caused by his hernia.

His father, who was not aware how serious his son’s habit had become until the child began to increase the number of cigarettes, gave him his first smoke thinking it would cure him.