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Dozens of pairs of severed human hands have been discovered in a frozen river.

In total, 54 hands were discovered by a local who spotted them - and all but one were in a bag.

The grim find was made in the city of Khabarovsk in the Far East of Siberia, near China.

The hand which wasn't in the bag was found on a snow -covered island in the Amur River, about 18 miles downstream from the Russian frontier with China.

The sinister finds were laid out in the snow for a police picture.

They were located at a popular fishing spot, but locals said they had seen nothing suspicious.

There is “mystery over who the sinister hands belonged to, when they were chopped off - and why”, reported The Siberian Times.

(Image: The Siberian Times)

Fingerprints were found on one hand, and the others are being checked.

One gruesome theory is that the hands could have been axed off as a punishment for theft.

Another is that the hands were severed from dead bodies in a hospital - but it is unclear why this would happen.

(Image: Sergey Kolesnichenko/The Siberia)

One idea is that the corpses were illegally used for stealing body parts and the hands were cut to prevent bodies being identified afterwards by fingerprints.

Local media reported that next to the remains were found medical bandages and hospital-style plastic shoe covers.

"It is a sickening sight," said a local source.

Police have refused to comment on the case.