Police in Kobe on Wednesday arrested an unemployed 47-year-old man over the death of a 6-year-old girl whose body parts were found in a bag in a wooded area in Nagata Ward, Kobe, on Tuesday afternoon.

DNA tests identified the remains as those of Mirei Ikuta who went missing on Sept 11, police said Wednesday morning.

Police said the suspect, identified as Yasuhiro Kimino, lives in an apartment near Ikuta's house, TBS reported. His hospital registration card and cigarette butts were found in one of the bags, police said. DNA on the butts matched that of Kimino.

Police said Kimino, who has refused to answer any questions, has so far only been charged with abandoning a body.

The wooded area, where the girl's remains were found, is about 150 meters from where the missing girl, Mirei Ikuta, lived. It is only accessible by steps. Police said they searched the area early last week.

According to police, the bag was discovered at around 4 p.m. There were five smaller bags inside it, containing the victim's head, the upper torso with arms, and the legs. A police spokesman said some body parts had yet to be found, including the pelvic area of the body.

Police said the one-piece dress and sandals that Ikuta was wearing when she disappeared was found with the body, but not her knapsack, TBS reported.

Ikuta left school in Nagata Ward at around 2:45 p.m. on Sept 11. She dropped in to see her grandmother who lives near the school and left her school bag there. She then went home. Street surveillance camera footage showed Mirei walking past a convenience store 400 meters from her home at 3:15 p.m.

After returning home, Ikuta then went out again, but her mother told police she had no idea why her daughter would have gone out again. She was last seen walking by an athletics ground of a high school at around 5:30 p.m., going in the opposite direction from her house, 700 meters away, and carrying her knapsack.

After her disappearance, about 200 police officers searched parks, canals and bushland in the vicinity, but found no clues.

© Japan Today