The invention relates to novel absorbent fibres/filaments from low-substituted carboxymethyl cellulose and the method of producing same. The filaments are produced by wet spinning, wherein the spinning dope is entirely comprised of low-substituted carboxymethyl cellulose dissolved in sodium hydroxide. The resulting CMC filaments have degree of substitution ranging from 0.10-0.35 and degree of polymerization ranging from 250-650 with the CMC uniformly distributed throughout the filament. The absorbency in deionized water and saline (0.9% NaCl) solution is 120 g/g and 30 g/g, respectively. The retention of deionized water and saline (0.9% NaCl) solution within the fibres is 48 g/g and 25 g/g, respectively.