The woman's entire life savings were hidden inside the mattress

A Tel Aviv woman has been searching through Israeli rubbish dumps after she said she accidentally threw away a mattress containing $1m (£700,000).

The woman, identified only as Anat, had bought a new mattress for her mother as a surprise and threw away the old one, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported.

But when the older woman returned home she "almost fainted", as she had hidden her entire life savings inside.

A search of three landfill sites has so far turned up nothing, said the paper.

When the woman realised her mistake, she rushed out to retrieve the mattress but it had already been taken away to the Hiriya local dump.

She hurried to the dump, only to find the mattress had been shipped to one of two larger landfill sites, along with another 3,000 tonnes of rubbish collected that day.

A search of the first site, Ganei Hadas, proved fruitless so she moved onto Efeh, close to the Dead Sea.

Yitzhak Borba, the director of the Efeh site, told Israel's Army Radio the woman had been "totally desperate" when she arrived.

He was reported to have kept some of his staff on overnight to fend off treasure hunters and help the woman.

But despite being unable to retrieve the mattress and its hidden fortune, "Anat" appeared philosophical about her loss.

"People have to take everything in proportion and thank God for the good and the bad," she said.