Russian police are reporting that they have found a bag containing 27 pairs of severed human hands that were washed up on its shores.
The shocking find was made close to the city of Khabarovsk in the Far East of Siberia, close to the border with China.
All but one of the 54 hands were in a bag.
Another, spotted first by a local, was lying separately on a snow-covered island in the Amur River around 18 miles downstream from the Russian frontier with China.
The sinister find was laid out in the snow for a police picture.
They were located at a popular fishing spot, but locals said they had seen nothing suspicious.
The Siberian Times reports there is a “mystery over who the sinister hands belonged to, when they were chopped off – and why.”
Fingerprints were only found on one hand, and the others are being checked.
One gruesome theory is that the hands could have been axed off as a punishment for theft.
Another is that the hands were severed from dead bodies in a hospital, but it is unclear why this would happen.
One fear is that the corpses were illegally used for stealing body parts and the hands were cut to prevent bodies being identified afterwards.
Local media reported that medical bandages and hospital-style plastic shoe covers were found next to the remains.
“It is a sickening sight,” said a local source. Police have refused to comment on the case.
Body harvesting mixed with human trafficking this looking like smh.