RunTime Error - Bidimensional matrix structure

Hello everyone.

I'm trying to create a program that solves a linear equation system in C.
To do that, initially,I created a structure named MATRIX. This structure has the pointer
to the line pointer vectors and the dimensions.

There is not syntax error, or compilation error. However, the Windows shows a message:
"Matrices.exe has stopped working."

Below, I created functions to allocate, enter with data and print the matrix:
(Compiled by MinGW in Code::Blocks)

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <conio.h>

typedef struct MATRIX
{
    int lines, columns; // The number of lines and columns respectively, obviously
    int **element; // The pointer to the matrix, in fact
} MATRIX;

MATRIX *createMatrix(int nlines, int ncolumns) // Allocates the memory to a matrix and returns its address
{
    MATRIX matrix; // The created matrix
    int i;

    matrix.lines = nlines; matrix.columns = ncolumns; // Saving the dimensions

    matrix.element = (int**) malloc(nlines * sizeof(int*)); // Allocating memory to the vector of pointers of each line

    if(matrix.element == NULL) // Check the memory allocation
    {
        printf("Memory Allocation Failed.\n");
        exit(0);
    }

    for(i = 0; i < nlines; i++)
    {
        matrix.element[i] = (int*) malloc(ncolumns * sizeof(int)); // Allocate memory to each line
        if(matrix.element[i] == NULL) // Check the memory allocation
        {
            printf("Memory Allocation Failed\n");
            exit(0);
        }
    }

    return &matrix;
}

void enterMatrix(MATRIX *matrix)
{
    int i, j;

    for(i = 0; i < matrix->lines; i++) // Passing through the lines
    {
        for(j = 0; j < matrix->columns; j++) // and through the columns
        {
            printf("a[%d][%d] = ", i, j);
            scanf("%d", &(matrix->element[i][j])); // Saving each element value from user
        }
    }
}

void printMatrix(MATRIX *matrix)
{
    int i, j;

    for(i = 0; i < matrix->lines; i++) // Passing through the lines
    {
        for(j = 0; j < matrix->columns; j++) // and through the columns
            printf(" %d",matrix->element[i][j]); // and printing each element
        printf("\n"); // At the final of each line, break line
    }
}

int main()
{
    MATRIX *M = createMatrix(3, 3); // Create 3 by 3 matrix
    enterMatrix(M); // Enter with data to matrix
    printf("\n\n"); 
    printMatrix(M); // Print the matrix

    getch(); 
    return 0;
}

Rodrigo