Police have shot a man dead who was suspected of beheading a 13-year-old boy in the south of France, it is reported.
Local police reportedly found the body of a young boy beheaded in an apartment in Tarascon on Sunday.
The body was found after a boy was reported missing from Marseille.
Investigations into the case of the missing teen led detectives to the apartment of a 32-year-old man thought to suffer from a psychiatric disorder, according to reports.
A body was found with the head and an arm sawn off – before the head was found in a bucket partially eaten, a source told Le Figaro.
‘Satanic objects’ were also said to have been found in the property.
“The body found may be that of the minor,” local public prosecutor Laurent Gumbau told AFP.
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Police have not yet been able to confirm the identity and the prosecutor said it would be “impossible at the current time to confirm the hypothesis of anthropophagy (cannibalism),” WION reports.
The resident of the apartment was not in the property at the time police entered, but was tracked down after a search.
He was shot as he tried to flee from police, reports said.
It was reported that he tried to escape over rooftops.
The man shot dead has not been confirmed yet as the killer and an investigation into both killings has been launched, reports said.