The severed head of a baby, believed to be younger than one, was found wrapped in plastic inside a freezer at a Tokyo sex parlour. The grim discovery was made by an employee at the establishment as they were cleaning out the appliance, who saw the head stored in a plastic bag.

Severed legs and arms, also belonging to a baby, were also found. The employee at the business based in the city’s Sumida Ward, Kotobashi, sounded the alarm after making the discovery at approximately 9pm on Saturday, December 6. According to Tokyo Metropolitan Police the baby is believed to have been only a few months old and their gender is currently unknown.

The force said the head of the baby was wrapped in a plastic bag, adding that part of the baby’s torso has not yet been found. They also found arms and legs placed underneath the head in food containers, stored in the shared refrigerator.

Officers are investigating the case as corpse mutilation and abandonment.

This horrific discovery comes after, earlier this year, the headless body of a man was found lying in the middle of a street in Lisbon.

Police found the body at about 6.45am on July 30. The street was closed off while officers investigated.

Also in July, the body of a woman aged in her 50s was found in Costa da Caparica, on the outskirts of the city. The owner of the vehicle isn’t known to the authorities. 

The distressing news from Tokyo also comes after a decapitated body was uncovered by a hiker in Germany earlier this month. 

The grim discovery, in a wooded area outside Monreal, comes after two hands were spotted on the A45 highway in North Rhine-Westphalia.