(RNN) - Police are investigating after 54 severed hands were found on an island in Siberia.
Authorities said someone found a human hand; then a bag with the rest of the hands was located, the Siberian Times said. Medical bandages and hospital-style plastic shoe covers were found alongside the bag of hands.
The investigators said the hands appear to belong to a forensic laboratory in nearby Khabarovsk, a city of 590,000 next to the Chinese border.
An investigative committee that studies serious crimes in Russia said, "These biological items (human hands) do not have a criminal background," The Siberian Times reported.
"A legal judgment will be made on the activities of the forensic experts of Khabarovsk city, who are in charge of utilizing the above mentioned items," the investigative committee said.
Macabre bag containing 27 pairs of human hands found in bag on Amur River island. Mystery over who the hands belonged to, when they were chopped off, and why. GRAPHIC IMAGES https://t.co/eq2B1N1Pn9 pic.twitter.com/wJZqYveSPr
— The Siberian Times (@siberian_times) March 8, 2018
The Siberian Times said in Russia, investigators sometimes cut off the hands of an unknown corpse after death so fingerprints could be taken if needed after burial. It is unclear why the forensic experts don't use a more technologically advanced method of retaining prints.
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