A field in Co Meath was sealed off and was being searched by gardaí this morning after a severed arm was found in the area yesterday.
Gardaí believe the full arm is that of a man and they are studying missing persons reports in an effort to confirm his identity.
Sources said local gardaí did not get an immediate opportunity to search the field at the Mayne in Clonee after the alarm was raised over the discovery because the light faded too quickly.
However, a Garda team prepared to move into the area at first light this morning to conduct a careful search of the area.
“We’ll obviously be looking for any more remains at the scene or to see if there’s any evidence - maybe that the arm was severed from a live person at the scene or part of a dead body hacked up,” said one Garda source.
Body parts are found more often than is generally realised, but usually on beaches, according to Garda soures.
A number of finds have been made on Dollymount beach in north Dublin this year. They were believed to be the remains of people who had taken their own lives and whose bodies had either decomposed in the water or been severed into parts by the propellers of boats.
However, the discovery of severed limbs in locations away from a coastal or beach setting is very unusual, the sources said.
Body parts were found floating in the Royal Canal in Dublin in March 2005. It emerged they were the remains of Farah Swaleh Noor, a Kenyan who had been beaten and his body dismembered at a nearby house in Ballybough by the Mulhall sisters, Charlotte and Linda.
