Mysterious bag containing 54 severed human hands found in Russia

A bag containing 27 pairs of severed human hands has been found on an island in Siberia.

All but one of the 54 hands was discovered inside a bag on a snow-covered island in the Amur River, just outside the city of Khabarovsk.

A local initially found one hand by itself before spotting the bag containing the others at the popular fishing site, around 30km from the Russian border with China, according to The Siberian Times

Locals told investigators they had not seen any suspicious activity recently. Police are now trying to establish who they belonged to, when they were 

chopped off and why. Fingerprints have only been found on one of the hands so far, The Siberian Times reported. It is not clear if prints on the others had been deliberately removed to prevent identification.



One theory is that the hands may have been axed off as a punishment for theft. Others are speculating the hands were removed from dead bodies in a hospital although it is unclear why this would happen.


The discovery has led to fears of a trade in illegal body parts using stolen corpses, and that the hands were severed to prevent the bodies from being identified afterwards. Local media reported that medical bandages and hospital-style plastic shoe covers were found next to the remains. Police have refused to comment publicly on the case and investigations are continuing.