Italian police used a specially adapted Lamborghini supercar to deliver two kidneys to donor patients on Tuesday hundreds of kilometres apart, they announced.

"Travelling on the motorway to deliver the most beautiful Christmas present: life," they said in a statement posted on social media, alongside a picture of a medical cool box in a purpose-built compartment at the front of the Huracan.

"Thanks to the State Police's special Father Christmas, two people have received the gift of a kidney."

The organs were driven from Padua in Italy's northeast to hospitals in Modena and then Rome.

The Lamborghini Huracan, which has a top speed of 300kmh (190mph) and the capacity to go from 0-100kmh in 3.2 seconds, was a 2017 gift to police from the luxury carmaker.

It was assigned to highway patrol in Bologna, northern Italy, for use in both normal police operations and the urgent transport of blood and organs.

Another Huracan is operated by the highway patrol in Rome, while a 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo once used by police is now in a museum.

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© Agence France-Presse

(FILES) In this file photo taken on May 8, 2013, of one of the two Lamborghini cars owned by the Italian Police is pictured in Milan. Italian police crossed a portion of Italy in a Lamborghini to deliver two kidneys to patients awaiting transplants, Italian national police reported on December 20, 2022.
(Photo by Olivier MORIN / AFP)