Cannibal arrested in Russia

Moscow, March 26 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russian police have arrested an alleged serial killer on charges of murder and cannibalism.

A regional court in Penza had previously charged a disabled man, Alexander Zhuplov, with some of the murders in 2011, and have now charged him with other killings.

According to the Izvestia newspaper, 24-year old Alexander Bychkov has been accused of murdering at least six people.

The alleged killer came to the attention of police during an investigation into another case.

Investigators caught Bychkov by accident. Initially, he was detained in connection with an investigation of theft from a local store.

During questioning Bychkov suddenly began to talk about the corpses that he had buried near his house.

"At this point we found six people buried, recovered the remains from the ground and sent them for examination," Penza region investigation department's Maria Orlova said. "The suspect identified the photos of those who died."

Bychkov killed his victims with a knife, then cut them up and ate their livers. "We can confirm cannibalism took place," said a senior law enforcement source.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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