A dismembered body has been discovered stuffed in a suitcase left under a bridge in the centre of Paris in a mystery case that has rocked the French capital.
The gruesome find was made by firefighters who had been dispatched to extinguish a fire that was sparked in a pile of rubbish under the Austerlitz bridge on Saturday night.
Upon putting out the fire, the emergency responders began a sweep of the surrounding area in the early hours of Sunday morning to rule out any other threats and stumbled across the suspicious case.
Inside they found a charred, dismembered human body.
Prosecutors have launched a murder probe but they are yet to identify the burned and tortured remains.
A dismembered body was found on May 11, 2024 at night under the Austerlitz bridge in Paris by firefighters who had come to put out a rubbish fire
Hours after firefighters made their shocking discovery, a man walked into Paris’ Defense police station in Hauts-de-Seine to hand himself in, sensationally declaring he was behind the horrific murder.
The self-declared perpetrator, who is yet to be identified, claimed the dismembered body belonged to a disabled person he was caring for.
He said the pair had a falling out and that he decided to kill his charge, according to a report by France’s Europe 1 outlet, but provided no other details to police.
Now forensic teams are trying to establish exactly how and where the victim was killed, cut up and stuffed in the case.
‘The body was complete, but in several pieces,’ a source close to the case told Le Parisien yesterday afternoon.
Preliminary reports suggested the victim was beaten to death ‘with bare hands’, according to Le Parisien’s sources.
He is said to have been a quadriplegic and would have been unable to defend himself.
The case containing his remains was found at the foot of the Austerlitz bridge – an area frequented by several homeless people and where rubbish is routinely dumped.
It is unclear how the fire was started amid the garbage, or when the case was left there.
A homeless man speaking to French reporters said he was not aware of anyone dumping the case.
‘It’s only us here,’ he said. ‘We didn’t see anything – I have been here since Saturday afternoon.’