British researchers believe they have revealed the identity of the most kissed woman in the world.

Experts at the University of Liverpool think they have tracked down the origin story of a woman who has saved millions of lives.

Researchers say that the face behind the life-saving CPR dummy used to practice resuscitation was based on a real woman.

Known as the "most kissed girl in the world", it is believed she was French and pulled from the River Seine in Paris in the late 19th century.

After being dragged from the water, the pathologist who performed an autopsy on the body was so captivated by her beauty he had her face preserved as a plaster death mask.

Over the following years, hundreds of copies of the mask were sold as trinkets throughout bohemian Paris.

These death masks reached many homes across Europe and decades later were used for the development of a realistic training aid to teach mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a doll that became known as Resusci Annie.

This mysterious woman, whose real name is still not known, also came to be dubbed with many monikers herself – L'Inconnue de la Seine or the Unknown Woman of Seine, the Mona Lisa of Seine.

It was thought she died by suicide, but over the years many stories emerged of her being murdered or eloping to the French capital from Liverpool with a wealthy suitor.

In 1956 it was discovered that mouth-to-mouth breathing could maintain blood oxygen levels in a non-breathing victim, leading to the development of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

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When a member of the American Heart Association's CPR committee saw that students practising CPR on one another risked causing rib fractures and pain, he approached a doll maker Asmund Laerdal to create a realistic training model.

While coming up with the design, Laerdal remembered a mask on the wall of his grandparents' house in Norway and decided to make it the face of his new resuscitation training aid.

It is estimated that Resusci Annie has likely helped more than 500 million people to train in life-saving CPR for over 60 years – saving around 2.5 million lives.

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The line "Annie are you okay?" – used to check for a response in the patient – even features in Michael Jackson's 1987 song Smooth Criminal, after the singer was inspired by his own CPR training.

Dr Stephanie Loke and Dr Sarah McKernon from the University of Liverpool investigated the story behind the "most kissed girl in the world", who she is and the story behind the mannequins.

On the legacy of Annie, the authors said: "Resusci Annie has likely helped more than 500 million people to train in CPR, saving around 2.5 million lives.

"These days you can be captivated by her beauty in resuscitation training rooms around the world, but there is one other place you can see her.

"The Lorenzi model makers in Paris, who produced L'Inconnue's original death mask, continue to produce copies four generations on."

It was a long-held belief that she died by suicide, as her body showed no evidence of violence, but not everyone is so convinced, the study found.

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