Human skulls found in India pond

Children out playing are said to have made the macabre discovery

Authorities in northern India are digging out a pond in which hundreds of human skulls have been discovered.

The remains were found after the pond adjacent to a mortuary in the city of Aligarh dried up due to hot weather.

Around 100 skulls, several bones and two skeletons have been recovered in the past three days, police say.

Reports say the remains belong to bodies of unclaimed corpses brought to the mortuary, but police say they are not making any assumptions.

'Thousands'

"Since the place is near to mortuary and there are marks similar to post-mortem on a few skulls, so as per primary investigation we can say that this might be related to mortuary," inspector Asim Arun said.

"But we don't want to directly reach to the conclusion. We want all the investigation process to complete and all the experts to analyse it then only we can reach some conclusion," he added.

A city resident Amit Srivastava explained how the remains were discovered.

"Children were playing and came here to get their ball. A child saw a skull. He got scared and ran away. We then came here and saw that behind the jail there is not one but thousands of skulls here.

"Digging is continuing... let's see how many more will be found," he said.

The authorities say around 100 human skulls, several bones and two skeletons have been recovered so far.

They say special equipment has been brought in to dig up the area in case more remains are found.

According to Indian law, after post mortem examinations are complete, police have 72 hours to remove the remains of unclaimed bodies.

Lower level officers, morgue sweepers and some rickshaw pullers are brought in to do the job.

It is believed that somewhere along the line some of these workers may have ditched the remains in the pond and pocketed the cash meant to pay for the cremations or burials.