A Japanese man has been arrested after police found nine bodies, including two with their heads severed and dumped in a cool box, in a flat in the Tokyo suburbs.

Takahiro Shiraishi, 27, is reportedly being quizzed by police in relation to the discoveries at his flat located in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, just south of Tokyo.

“It’s true that I tried to hide the bodies of the people I killed to destroy evidence,” the suspect told police, according to Japanese media reports.

Jiji Press said Shiraishi had told police that he chopped up the bodies in a bathroom and a saw was found in his room.

The bodies were of eight women and one man, several media reported.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police officers were investigating the case of a 23-year-old woman who disappeared in Hachioji, western Tokyo, earlier this month when they made the grisly discoveries.