Hong Kong Firefighters Find Chopped Up Human Remains Inside Burning Shipping Container

HONG KONG (AP) -- Authorities found hacked and charred human body parts inside a burning shipping container early Wednesday and were investigating the case as a murder, according to police and local media.

Firefighters were dispatched to extinguish the container, which had been left in bushes in the suburban New Territories, only to find that it contained someone's burned remains stuffed into a suitcase, said police spokeswoman Trish Leung.

The remains were so badly charred that police could not immediately identify even the victim's gender, Leung said.

Leung said the suitcase and body were inside a 6-meter (20-foot) container. Cable TV reported that the body was cut into pieces, but Leung said she could not confirm this.

Police were treating the case as a murder, but authorities had no clues about the victim's identity and no suspects have been named or arrested.

The body was discovered in the same area of Hong Kong where a businessman was killed in a car bombing three weeks ago - after surviving a similar attack in 2000.

Asked by a reporter whether there might be any connection between the two apparent gangland-style killings, Leung would say only that both cases remained under investigation.