Customs officers at an Austrian airport were taken aback to find human entrails in the bag of a Moroccan traveller, who claimed they belonged to her dead husband, local media have reported.

The unusual find was made by inspectors at the regional airport of Graz, who checked luggage belonging to a woman arriving from Morocco, according to the Kleine Zeitung newspaper and APA news agency.

The intestines had been carefully wrapped and placed in two receptacles.

The unnamed woman explained that she suspected her deceased husband, a Moroccan born in 1976, had been poisoned and she wished to have a toxicology analysis of his tissue carried out, the Kleine Zeitung said.

APA said the discovery was confirmed by the ministry of finance, which is the oversight body for Austria's customs service.