VIENNA -- A man strangled and dismembered his wife, entombed her head in concrete and then used the concrete block as a weight to drown himself in an Austrian lake, authorities said Tuesday.

Police official Gottfried Mitterlehner said the couple were a 72-year old man and his 71-year old wife from Germany but did not further identify them.

Officials told reporters the head was found in a block of concrete in a bag attached to the man's hand. The other hand also was weighed down.

The corpse and the bag were recovered by police divers from the waters of Traunsee Monday. A day earlier, two suitcases containing the woman's remains were found floating close to the lake's shore near the town of Gmunden, around 80 kilometres east of Salzburg.