Russia Arrests Two Suspected Cannibals

Russia has arrested two suspected murderers who are believed to have eaten body parts of at least seven victims, investigators and media reported Monday.

A suspected serial killer in the town of Penza, some 560 kilometers (348 miles) southeast of Moscow, is believed to have "killed at least six people," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

"A search of the man's home turned up a personal diary listing the crimes committed. The suspect identified the victims' photographs," investigators said, without naming the man.

The Izvestia daily wrote that the 23-year-old suspect, who has been detained in custody during the investigation, had also committed cannibalism.

It cited law enforcement sources as saying that "there were several episodes of cannibalism" and that the suspect ate the livers of victims, who all lived in the small town of Belinsky.

The Investigative Committee also announced the arrest in the far eastern city of Vladivostok of a 35-year-old man who confessed to killing one of his friends and eating the body.

The suspect "confessed that March 21 he killed the victim, 41, after drinking strong alcohol. Afterwards he and a friend ate the remains," investigators said, adding that they found some in a fridge.

Police have uncovered numerous cases of cannibalism in Russia in recent years, with some of those convicted homeless alcoholics.

In August last year, police in the far northern city of Murmansk arrested a 21-year-old man who confessed to killing and eating a man he met on a gay dating website.

In June 2010 a court handed down long jail sentences to three homeless men after they killed and ate a man and sold parts of his body to a kebab stall in the Perm region in the Urals mountains.

Cannibalism is not a separate offence in the Russian criminal code.