Residents on a remote Indonesian island thought they'd found an angel, fallen from heaven, washed up on a beach, and until recently were treating it as such.

Local news organisation Pojok Satu described an "angel child" in its original report. It had been found by a local 21-year-old fisherman, Pardin. People were very excited.

The villagers in the Pulau Sagu Bokan subdistrict kept the discovery in one of the homes and reportedly changed its clothes and hijab every day.

According to Indonesian news service Detik, it was found on March 12, so appears to have been around for some time.

But, alas, the 'angel' turned out to be an inflatable sex doll.

After members of the community posted a photograph of the woman to Facebook, the questions began.

Detik later updated its story to note that that AFP had investigated, and the finding was confirmed to be a plastic sex toy.