Parts of a mutilated body washed up on the sands of Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, police say, just metres from where beach volleyball athletes will compete in the upcoming Olympics.
The discovery, first reported to a newspaper by a Rio street vendor, is the latest to unnerve the city as it grapples with rising crime, a recession and exhausted state finances at a time when it hoped to be celebrating the first Olympics ever held in South America.
It was unclear on Wednesday afternoon what may have caused the body's mutilation but a policeman standing guard by a security perimeter confirmed its existence to Reuters.
Police officials did not immediately return calls to their public affairs office for more details.
The Olympics, which start August 5, were intended to show off an economic boom that has since fizzled in Latin America's biggest country.