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Divers have found the decapitated head and legs of a Swedish journalist who died in mysterious circumstances on an inventor's homemade submarine, police in Denmark say.

Kim Wall's body parts were discovered in plastic bags near where her naked, mutilated torso was found in August, Copenhagen police investigator Jens Moeller Jensen said today.

They were reportedly uncovered alongside a knife and some of Ms Wall's clothes in bags, weighed down by "heavy metal pieces", by navy divers, assisting cops, in Koge Bay.

Mr Moeller Jensen told reporters there were no fractures to the journalist's skull. He added that the body parts will be further investigated to try to determine a cause of death.

The discovery of Ms Wall's head and legs was made on Friday, two months after she vanished after boarding the 56-foot submarine. Her arms are still missing.

(Image: Rex Features)

(Image: AFP)

Police had previously identified a headless female torso that washed ashore in Copenhagen as belonging to the 30-year-old freelance reporter on August 23.

Cops have charged Danish inventor Peter Madsen with killing Ms Wall, a charge carrying a sentence of five years to and life in prison. He was arrested after his submarine sank and he was rescued.

Mr Moeller Jensen said today that Madsen and his lawyers had not had time yet to react to the new evidence. He reportedly would not comment on the discovery of the knife.

A police prosecutor said this week that officers had found images "which we presume to be real" of women being strangled and decapitated on the hard drive on Madsen's computer in a laboratory he ran.

Madsen said the computer searched by police was not his but was used by everyone in the laboratory.

The 46-year-old claims Ms Wall died by accident when she was hit by a heavy hatch cover on board his submarine as they sailed in the strait between Denmark and Sweden.

(Image: AFP)

(Image: REUTERS)

He alleges he was holding the hatch for the reporter, but it slipped and hit her head.

The inventor, who was on a trip with Ms Wall on the UC3 Nautilus submarine that he had built, appeared in court in Copenhagen last month.

He is also accused of mutilating the journalist's body, which he has denied.

The court ordered a psychiatric evaluation and that Madsen be kept in custody for four weeks.

In its preliminary investigation, the court had ordered the defendant to be detained until September 5 on the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Madsen told an earlier hearing that he crawled out through the submarine's hatch, as it was at the surface of the water, moments before Ms Wall's death.

(Image: REX/Shutterstock)

He said he was standing on top, while holding the hatch open to let Ms Wall follow him. At that moment, the submarine was rocked by a wave from another boat, the court heard.

"I lose my foothold and the hatch shuts," Madsen told the court, saying the journalist was knocked to the floor. "There was a pool of blood where she had landed."

A prosecutor also read earlier testimony from behind closed doors in which the defendant said the impact had fractured Ms Wall's skull and killed her.

Madsen said he tried to bury her at sea but denied mutilating her body, and added that he had contemplated killing himself while still on board.

(Image: Rex Features)

Ms Wall, who was researching a story on Madsen, went missing after the inventor took her out to sea in his submarine on August 10.

In court, Madsen denied having amputated her limbs and said he dropped her "whole" body into the water, several hours after her death, after having a sleep because he was "tired and exhausted".

He admitted that he wanted to "bury her at sea" by attaching metal to the body in order for it to sink.

"I had no contact with the body and didn't want a dead body in my submarine," Madsen told the court.

"I put a rope around her feet to drag her out of the hatch," he said, adding that he was crying during this operation.

"I am suicidal at this stage (and) thought a fitting end for Peter Madsen would be on board the Nautilus," he said. "I was in a condition where I decided I couldn't continue the life I had been living."

(Image: Rex Features)

He changed his mind, he said, because he wanted to see his wife and three cats.

Madsen has denied manslaughter.

He is also being held on preliminary charges of the indecent handling of a corpse.

The submarine is one of three Madsen had built and one of the largest privately built ones in the world.

It could carry eight people and weighed 40 tonnes fully equipped. A day after taking Ms Wall out to sea, Madsen was rescued in a navy operation after deliberately sinking the vessel.

The defendant is due to appear in court again on October 31.