A body with its upper half missing was discovered Tuesday in the mountains of west Tokyo, with tracks believed to have been left by a large animal also found nearby, local police said.
The Ome branch of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is working to identify the victim, whose gender and age have yet to be determined, while investigating the possibility of an attack by a bear or other wild animal.
The body was first spotted last Thursday by an off-duty police officer hiking in the Nippara area of Okutama. Tokyo police and the local hunters’ association searched the area and found it around 100 meters from the hiking trail, around 1 p.m. Tuesday.
A backpack and trekking poles were found some distance away.
The site where the body was found is known as the Nagasawa ridge, an area that straddles the border between Okutama and Chichibu in Saitama Prefecture. There have been numerous reports of bear sightings in the Okutama area since April.
© KYODO
