HELSINKI -- The body of a woman has been found in the Baltic Sea near where a missing Swedish journalist is believed to have died on a privately built submarine, Danish police said late Monday.

A female torso without legs, arms or a head was found by a passer-by, said the head of the investigation, Jens Moller Jensen.

"We have recovered the body ... It is the torso of a woman," Jensen told reporters. "An inquest will be conducted."

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He said it was "too early" to say if the body was that of 30-year-old Swedish reporter Kim Wall, who went missing more than a week ago after a trip on the submarine owned by 46-year-old Peter Madsen, a Danish inventor.

Jensen said the body was discovered hours after Madsen told authorities that Wall had died onboard in an accident and that he buried her at sea at an unspecified location.

Madsen was arrested in connection with Wall's disappearance after his submarine sank off Denmark's eastern coast, an event police said they suspected the inventor caused on purpose.

He denied any wrongdoing and initially told authorities he had dropped the reporter off on a redeveloped island in Copenhagen's harbor about 3½ hours into a nighttime trip Aug. 10.

Madsen will continue to be held on preliminary manslaughter charges, police said. They declined to provide further details about the new information he had provided.

Madsen was known for financing his submarine project through crowdfunding. The first launch of his 40-ton, nearly 60-foot-long UC3 Nautilus in 2008 made international headlines.

The Submarine UC3 Nautilus is lifted onto a block truck from the salvage ship Vina with the help of a container crane in Copenhagen's Harbor, on August 12, 2017. Getty

Wall's family earlier told The Associated Press that she had worked in many dangerous places as a journalist and it was unimaginable "something could happen ... just a few miles from the childhood home."

The International Women's Media Foundation said it was "deeply saddened" to receive confirmation that Wall had died.

"She was dogged in her pursuit of important and sometimes quirky stories. She was adored by those who knew her," the organization said in a statement.

Wall was last seen atop the Nautilus submarine on Aug. 10, about to embark on a brief ride in the vessel for a profile about its Danish inventor.

Before his arrest, Madsen appeared on Danish television to discuss the submarine's sinking and his rescue.

The journalist's boyfriend alerted authorities that the sub had not returned from a test run, police said.